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ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY 

OR 

THE LESSER MYSTERIES 



i 



Some Leading Works 

BY 

ANNIE BESANT 



THOUGHT POWER 
ANCIENT IDEALS 
THE ANCIENT WISDOM 
THE PATH OF DISCIPLESHIP 
IN THE OUTER COURT 
BUILDING OF KOSMOS 
FOUR GREAT RELIGIONS 
THE SEVEN MANUALS 
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



For Full List See End of Volume 



Esoteric Christianity 

OR 

The Lesser Mysteries 



BY 

ANNIE BESANT 




NEW YORK 
JOHN LANE: THE BODLEY HEAD 
1902 



35 Ps6 3 
7 

In proceeding to the contemplation of the mys- 
teries of knowledge, we shall adhere to the celeb- 
rated and venerable rule of tradition, commencing 
from the origin of the universe, setting forth those 
points of physical contemplation which are necess- 
ary to be premised, and removing whatever can 
be an obstacle on the way ; so that the ear may be 
prepared for the reception of the tradition of the 
Gnosis, the ground being cleared of weeds and 
fitted for the planting of the vineyard ; for there is 
a conflict before the conflict, and mysteries before 
the mysteries. — 'S. Clement of Alexandria 

Let the specimen suffice to those who have ears. 
For it is not required to unfold the mystery, but 
only to indicate what is sufficient. — Ibid. 

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. — S. 

Matthew 



Copyright 
1901 ' J 
By JOH^'LANE 
A II Rights Reserved 



TH? LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies ^ec^o 

DEC. 4 1301 

CLASS <^XXa N». 

COPY A. 



IV 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Foreword vii 

Chapter I 

The Hidden Side of Religions ... 1 
Chapter II 

The Hidden Side of Christianity . . 36 
Chapter III 

The Hidden Side of Christianity . . 68 

{concluded ) 

Chapter IV 

The Historical Christ . . . .119 
Chapter V 

The Mythic Christ 144 

Chapter VI 

The Mystic Christ 169 

Chapter VII 

The Atonement 219 

v 



Contents 



PAGE 

Chapter VIII 

Resurrection and Ascension . . . 230 

Chapter IX 

The Trinity 251 

Chapter X 

Prayer .... ... 274 

Chapter XI 

The Forgiveness op Sins .... 299 

Chapter XII 

Sacraments 322 

Chapter XIII 

Sacraments (continued ) 343 

Chapter XIV 

Revelation 366 

Afterword ..... ... 383 



vi 



FOREWORD 



The object of this book is to suggest cer- 
tain lines of thought as to the deep truths 
underlying Christianity, truths generally 
overlooked, and only too often denied. The 
generous wish to share with all what is 
precious, to spread broadcast priceless 
truths, to shut out none from the illumina- 
tion of true knowledge, has resulted in a 
zeal without discretion that has vulgarised 
Christianity, and has presented its teachings 
in a form that often repels the heart and 
alienates the intellect. The command to 
"preach the Gospel to every creature" 1 — 
though admittedly of doubtful authenticity 
— has been interpreted as forbidding the 
teaching of the Gnosis to a few, and has 
apparently erased the less popular saying 



1 S. Mark xvi. 15. 
vii 



Foreword 



of the same Great Teacher: "Give not that 
which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye 
your pearls before swine." 1 

This spurious sentimentality — which re- 
fuses to recognise the obvious inequalities of 
intelligence and morality, and thereby re- 
duces the teaching of the highly developed 
to the level attainable by the least evolved, 
sacrificing the higher to the lower in a way 
that injures both — had no place in the virile 
common sense of the early Christians. S. 
Clement of Alexandria says quite bluntly, 
after alluding to the Mysteries: "Even now 
I fear, as it is said, 6 to cast the pearls before 
swine, lest they tread them underfoot, and 
turn and rend us. ' For it is difficult to ex- 
hibit the really pure and transparent words 
respecting the true Light to swinish and un- 
trained hearers." 2 

If true knowledge, the Gnosis, is again to 
form a part of Christian teachings, it can 
only be under the old restrictions, and the 
idea of levelling down to the capacities of 

1 S. Matt. vii. 6. 

2 Clarke's Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. IV. 
Clement of Alexandria. JStromata, bk. I., ch. xii. 

viii 



Foreword 



the least developed must be definitely sur- 
rendered. Only by teaching above the 
grasp of the little evolved can the way be 
opened up for a restoration of arcane knowl- 
edge, and the study of the Lesser Mysteries 
must precede .that of the Greater. The 
Greater will never be published through the 
printing-press; they can only be given by 
Teacher to pupil, "from mouth to ear." 
But the Lesser Mysteries, the partial unveil- 
ing of deep truths, can even now be re- 
stored, and such a volume as the present is 
intended to outline these, and to show the 
nature of the teachings which have to be 
mastered. Where only hints are given, 
quiet meditation on the truths hinted at will 
cause their outlines to become visible, and 
the clearer light obtained by continued 
meditation will gradually show them more 
fully. For meditation quiets the lower 
mind, ever engaged in thinking about ex- 
ternal objects, and when the lower mind is 
tranquil then only can it be illuminated by 
the Spirit. Knowledge of spiritual truths 
must be thus obtained, from within and not 

from without, from the divine Spirit whose 

ix' 



Foreword 



temple we are 1 and not from an external 
Teacher. These things are " spiritually dis- 
cerned" by that divine indwelling Spirit, 
that "mind of Christ," whereof speaks the 
great Apostle, 2 and that inner light is shed 
upon the lower mind. 

This is the way of the Divine Wisdom, the 
true Theosophy. It is not, as some think, 
a diluted version of Hinduism, or Buddhism, 
or Taoism, or of any special religion. It is 
Esoteric Christianity as truly as it is Eso- 
teric Buddhism, and belongs equally to all 
religions, exclusively to none. This is the 
source of the suggestions made in this little 
volume, for the helping of those who seek 
the Light — that "true Light which lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world," 3 
though most have not yet opened their eyes 
to it. It does not bring the Light. It only 
says: "Behold the Light! " For thus have 
we heard. It appeals only to the few who 
hunger for more than the exoteric teach- 
ings give them. For those who are fully 
satisfied with the exoteric teachings, it is 

n Cor. iii. 16. 2 Ibid., ii. 14, 16. 

3 S. John, i. 9. 
X 



Foreword 

not intended; for why should bread be 
forced on those who are not hungry? For 
those who hunger, may it prove bread, and 
not a stone. 



xi 



J 



ESOTERIC CHRISTIANITY 



Chapter I. 

THE HIDDEN SIDE OF EELIGIONS. 

Many, perhaps most, who see the title of 
this book will at once traverse it, and will 
deny that there is anything valuable which 
can be rightly described as " Esoteric Chris- 
tianity." There is a widespread, and withal 
a popular, idea that there is no such thing 
as an occult teaching in connection with 
Christianity, and that "The Mysteries," 
whether Lesser or Greater, were a purely 
Pagan institution. The very name of "The 
Mysteries of Jesus," so familiar in the ears 
of the Christians of the first centuries, would 
come with a shock of surprise on those of 
their modern successors, and, if spoken as 
denoting a special and definite institution in 
the Early Church, would cause a smile of 

1 



Esoteric Christianity 



incredulity. It has actually been made a 
matter of boast that Christianity has no 
secrets, that whatever it has to say it says 
to all, and whatever it has to teach it 
teaches to all. Its truths are supposed to 
be so simple, that "a way-faring man, 
though a fool, may not err therein," and 
the "simple Gospel" has become a stock 
phrase. 

It is necessary, therefore, to prove clearly 
that in the Early Church, at least, Chris- 
tianity was no whit behind other great re- 
ligions in possessing a hidden side, and that 
it guarded, as a priceless treasure, the 
secrets revealed only to a select few in its 
Mysteries. But ere doing this it will be 
well to consider the whole question of this 
hidden side of religions, and to see why such 
a side must exist if a religion is to be strong 
and stable ; for thus its existence in Chris- 
tianity will appear as a foregone conclusion, 
and the references to it in the writings of 
the Christian Fathers will appear simple 
and natural instead of surprising and unin- 
telligible. As a historical fact, the exist- 
ence of this esotericism is demonstrable; but 

2 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



it may also be shown that intellectually it is 
a necessity. 

The first question we have to answer is: 
What is the object of religions? They are 
given to the world by men wiser than the 
masses of the people on whom they are be- 
stowed, and are intended to quicken human 
evolution. In order to do this effectively 
they must reach individuals and influence 
them. Now all men are not at the same 
level of evolution, but evolution might be 
figured as a rising gradient, with men sta- 
tioned on it at every point. The most high- 
ly evolved are far above the least evolved , 
both in intelligence and character; the ca- 
pacity alike to understand and to act varies 
at every stage. It is, therefore, useless to 
give to all the same religious teaching; that 
which would help the intellectual man would 
be entirely unintelligible to the stupid, while 
that which would throw the saint into 
ecstasy would leave the criminal untouched. 
If, on the other hand, the teaching be suit- 
able to help the unintelligent, it is intoler- 
ably crude and jejune to the philosopher, 
while that which redeems the criminal is 

3 



Esoteric Christianity 



utterly useless to the saint. Yet all the 
types need religion, so that each may reach 
upward to a life higher than that which he 
is leading, and no type or grade should be 
sacrificed to any other. Religion must be as 
graduated as evolution, else it fails in its 
object. 

Next comes the question : In what way do 
religions seek to quicken human evolution? 
Religions seek to evolve the moral and intel- 
lectual natures, and to aid the spiritual na- 
ture to unfold itself. Regarding man as a 
complex being, they seek to meet him at 
every point of his constitution, and therefore 
to bring messages suitable for each, teach- 
ings adequate to the most diverse human 
needs. Teachings must therefore be adapted 
to each mind and heart to which they are 
addressed. If a religion does not reach and 
master the intelligence, if it does not purify 
and inspire the emotions, it has failed in its 
object, so far as the person addressed is con- 
cerned. 

Not only does it thus direct itself to the 
intelligence and the emotions, but it seeks, 
as said, to stimulate the unfoldment of the 

4 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



spiritual nature. It answers to that inner 
impulse which exists in humanity, and 
which is ever pushing the race onwards. 
For deeply within the heart of all — often 
overlaid by transitory conditions, often sub- 
merged under pressing interests and anxie- 
ties — there exists a continual seeking after 
God. " As the hart panteth after the water- 
brooks, so panteth " 1 humanity after God. 
The search is sometimes checked for a space, 
and the yearning seems to disappear. 
Phases recur in civilisation and in thought, 
wherein this cry of the human Spirit for the 
divine — seeking its source as water seeks 
its level, to borrow a simile from Giordano 
Bruno — this yearning of the human Spirit 
for that which is akin to it in the universe, 
of the part for the whole, seems to be stilled, 
to have vanished; none the less does that 
yearning reappear, and once more the same 
cry rings out from the Spirit. Trampled on 
for a time, apparently destroyed, though the 
tendency may be, it rises again and again 
with inextinguishable persistence, it repeats 
itself again and again, no matter how often 



1 Psalms, xlii. 1. 
5 



Esoteric Christianity 



it is silenced; and it thus proves itself to 
be an inherent tendency in human nature, 
an ineradicable constituent thereof. Those 
who declare triumphantly, "Lo! it is 
dead!" find it facing them again with un- 
diminished vitality. Those who build with- 
out allowing for it find their well-construc- 
ted edifices riven as by an earthquake. 
Those who hold it to be outgrown find the 
wildest superstitions succeed its denial. So 
much is it an integral part of humanity, 
that man will have some answer to his ques- 
tionings; rather an answer that is false, 
than none. If he cannot find religious 
truth, he will take religious error rather 
than no religion, and will accept the crudest 
and most incongruous ideals rather than ad- 
mit that the ideal is non-existent. 

Eeligion, then, meets this craving, and 
taking hold of the constituent in human na- 
ture that gives rise to it, trains it, strength- 
ens it, purifies it, and guides it towards its 
proper ending — the union of the human 
Spirit with the divine, so "that God may be 
all in all.'" 



1 1 Cor. xv. 28. 
6 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



The next question which meets us in our 
enquiry is: What is the source of religions? 
To this question two answers have been 
given in modern times — that of the Com- 
parative Mythologists and that of the Com- 
parative Eeligionists. Both base their an- 
swers on a common basis of admitted 
facts. Research has indisputably proved 
that the religions of the world are markedly 
similar in their main teachings/ in their 
possession of Founders who display super- 
human powers and extraordinary moral ele- 
vation, in their ethical precepts, in their use 
of means to come into touch with invisible 
worlds, and in the symbols by which they 
express their leading beliefs. This similar- 
ity, amounting in many cases to identity, 
proves — according to both the above schools 
— a common origin. 

But on the nature of this common origin 
the two schools are at issue. The Compar- 
ative Mythologists contend that the common 
origin is the common ignorance, and that 
the loftiest religious doctrines are simply re- 
fined expressions of the crude and barbarous 

guesses of savages, of primitive men, re- 

7 



Esoteric Christianity 



garding themselves and their surroundings. 
Animism, fetishism, nature-worship, sun- 
worship — these are the constituents of the 
primeval mud out of which has grown the 
splendid lily of religion. A Krishna, a 
Buddha, a Lao-tze, a Jesus, are the highly 
civilised but lineal descendants of the whirl- 
ing medicine-man of the savage. God is a 
composite photograph of the innumerable 
Gods who are the personifications of the forces 
of nature. And so forth. It is all summed 
up in the phrase: Eeligions are branches 
from a common trunk — human ignorance. 

The Comparative Religionists consider, on 
the other hand, that all religions originate 
from the teachings of Divine Men, who give 
out to the different nations of the world, 
from time to time, such parts of the funda- 
mental verities of religion as the people are 
capable of receiving, teaching ever the same 
morality, inculcating the use of similar 
means, employing the same significant sym- 
bols. The savage religions — animism and 
the rest — are degenerations, the results of 
decadence, distorted and dwarfed descen- 
dants of true religious beliefs. Sun-wor- 

8 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



ship and pure forms of nature-worship were, 
in their day, noble religions, highly alle- 
gorical but full of profound truth and 
knowledge. The great Teachers — it is 
alleged by Hindus, Buddhists, and by some 
Comparative Religionists, such as Theoso- 
phists — form an enduring Brotherhood of 
men who have risen beyond humanity, who 
appear at certain periods to enlighten the 
world, and who are the spiritual guardians 
of the human race. This view may be 
summed up in the phrase: "Religions are 
branches from a common trunk — Divine 
Wisdom." 

This Divine Wisdom is spoken of as the 
Wisdom, the Gnosis, the Theosophia, and 
some, in different ages of the world, have 
so desired to emphasise their belief in this 
unity of religions, that they have preferred 
the eclectic name of Theosophist to any 
narrower designation. 

The relative value of the contentions of 

these two opposed schools must be judged 

by the cogency of the evidence put forth by 

each. The appearance of a degenerate form 

of a noble idea may closely resemble that of 

9 



Esoteric Christianity 

a refined product of a coarse idea, and the 
only method of deciding between degene- 
ration and evolution would be the examina- 
tion, if possible, of intermediate and remote 
ancestors. The evidence brought forward 
by believers in the Wisdom is of this kind. 
They allege : that the Founders of religions, 
judged by the records of their teachings, 
were far above the level of average hu- 
manity; that the Scriptures of religions 
contain moral precepts, sublime ideals, poeti- 
cal aspirations, profound philosophical state- 
ments, which are not even approached in 
beauty and elevation by later writings in 
the same religions — that is, that the old is 
higher than the new, instead of the new 
being higher than the old ; that no case can 
be shown of the refining and improving 
process alleged to be the source of current 
religions, whereas many cases of degeneracy 
from pure teachings can be adduced; that 
even among savages, if their religions be 
carefully studied, many traces of lofty ideas 
can be found, ideas which are obviously 
above the productive capacity of the savages 
themselves. 

10 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



This last idea has been worked out by Mr. 
Andrew Lang, who — judging by his book 
on The Making of Religion — should be 
classed as a Comparative Eeligionist rath- 
er than a Comparative Mythologist. He 
points to the existence of a common tradi- 
tion, which, he alleges, cannot have been 
evolved by the savages for themselves, 
being men whose ordinary beliefs are of the 
crudest kind and whose minds are little 
developed. He shows, under crude beliefs 
and degraded views, loftj r traditions of a 
sublime character touching the nature of 
the Divine Being and His relations with 
men. The deities who are worshipped are, 
for the most part, the veriest devils, but 
behind, beyond all these, there is a dim but 
glorious over-arching Presence, seldom or 
never named, but whispered of as source of 
all, as power and love and goodness, too ten- 
der to awaken terror, too good to require 
supplication. Such ideas manifestly cannot 
have been conceived by the savages among 
whom they are found, and they remain as 
eloquent witnesses of the revelations made 
by some great Teacher — dim tradition of 

11 



Esoteric Christianity 



whom is generally also discoverable — who 
was a Son of the Wisdom, and imparted 
some of its teachings in a long bye-gone age. 

The reason, and, indeed, the justification, 
of the view taken by the Comparative 
Mythologists is patent. They found in 
every direction low forms of religious belief, 
existing among savage tribes. These were 
seen to accompany general lack of civilisa- 
tion. Regarding civilised men as evolving 
from uncivilised, what more natural than to 
regard civilised religion as evolving from 
uncivilised? It is the first obvious idea. 
Only later and deeper study can show that 
the savages of to-day are not our ancestral 
types, but are the degenerated offsprings of 
great civilised stocks of the past, and that 
man in his infancy was not left to grow up 
untrained, but was nursed and educated by 
his elders, from whom he received his first 
guidance alike in religion and civilisation. 
This view is being substantiated by such 
facts as those dwelt on by Lang, and will 
presently raise the question, " Who were 
these elders, of whom traditions are every- 
where found? " 

12 



The Hidden Side of Religions 

Still pursuing our enquiry, we come next 
to the question: To what people were relig- 
ions given? And here we come at once to 
the difficulty with which every Founder of a 
religion must deal, that already spoken of as 
bearing on the primary object of religion 
itself, the quickening of human evolution, 
with its corollary that all grades of evolving 
humanity must be considered by Him. Men 
are at every stage of evolution, from the 
most barbarous to the most developed ; men 
are found of lofty intelligence, but also of 
the most unevolved mentality ; in one place 
there is a highly developed and complex 
civilisation, in another a crude and simple 
polity. Even within any given civilisation 
we find the most varied types — the most ig- 
norant and the most educated, the most 
thoughtful and the most careless, the most 
spiritual and the most brutal; yet each one 
of these types must be reached, and each 
must be helped in the place where he is. If 
evolution be true, this difficulty is inevitable, 
and must be faced and overcome by the 
divine Teacher, else will His work be a fail- 
ure. If man is evolving as all around him 

13 



Esoteric Christianity 



is evolving, these differences of develop- 
ment, these varied grades of intelligence, 
must be a characteristic of humanity every- 
where, and must be provided for in each of 
the religions of the world. 

We are thus brought face to face with the 
position that we cannot have one and the 
same religious teaching even for a single 
nation, still less for a single civilisation, or 
for the whole world. If there be but one 
teaching, a large number of those to whom 
it is addressed will entirely escape its influ- 
ence. If it be made suitable for those whose 
intelligence is limited, whose morality is ele- 
mentary, whose perceptions are obtuse, so 
that it may help and train them, and thus 
enable them to evolve, it will be a religion 
utterly unsuitable for those men, living in 
the same nation, forming part of the same 
civilisation, who have keen and delicate 
moral perceptions, bright and subtle intelli- 
gence, and evolving spirituality. But if, 
on the other hand, this latter class is to be 
helped, if intelligence is to be given a phi- 
losophy that it can regard as admirable, if 
delicate moral perceptions are to be still 

14 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



further refined, if the dawning spiritual 
nature is to be enabled to develope into the 
perfect day, then the religion will be so 
spiritual, so intellectual, and so moral, that 
when it is preached to the former class it 
will not touch their minds or their hearts, 
it will be to them a string of meaningless 
phrases, incapable of arousing their latent 
intelligence, or of giving them any motive 
for conduct which will help them to grow 
into a purer morality. 

Looking, then, at these facts concerning 
religion, considering its object, its means, 
its origin, the nature and varying needs of 
the people to whom it is addressed, recog- 
nising the evolution of spiritual, intel- 
lectual, and moral faculties in man, and 
the need of each man for such training 
as is suitable for the stage of evolution at 
which he has arrived, we are led to the 
absolute necessity of a varied and graduated 
religious teaching, such as will meet these 
different needs and help each man in his 
own place. 

There is yet another reason why esoteric 
teaching is desirable with respect to a cer- 

15 



Esoteric Christianity 



tain class of truths. It is eminently the 
fact in regard to this class that "knowledge 
is power," The public promulgation of a 
philosophy profoundly intellectual, sufficient 
to train an already highly developed intel- 
lect, and to draw the allegiance of a lofty 
mind, cannot injure any. It can be 
preached without hesitation, for it does not 
attract the ignorant, who turn away from 
it as dry, stiff, and uninteresting. But 
there are teachings which deal with the con- 
stitution of nature, ^xplain recondite laws, 
and throw light on hidden processes, the 
knowledge of which gives control over nat- 
ural energies, and enables its possessor to 
direct these energies to certain ends, as a 
chemist deals with the production of chemi- 
cal compounds. Such knowledge may be 
very useful to highly developed men, and 
may much increase their power of serving 
the race. But if this knowledge were pub- 
lished to the world, it might and would be 
misused, just as the knowledge of subtle 
poisons was misused in the Middle Ages by 
the Borgias and by others. It would pass 
into the hands of people of strong intellect, 

16 



The Hidden Side of Religions 

but of unregulated desires, men moved by 
separative instincts, seeking the gain of 
their separate selves and careless of the com- 
mon good. They would be attracted by the 
idea of gaining powers which would raise 
them above the general level, and place or- 
dinary humanity at their mercy, and would 
rush to acquire the knowledge which exalts 
its possessors to a superhuman rank. They 
would, by its possession, become yet more 
selfish and confirmed in their separateness, 
their pride would be nourished and their 
sense of aloofness intensified, and thus they 
would inevitably be driven along the road 
which leads to diabolism, the Left Hand 
Path whose goal is isolation and not union. 
And they would not only themselves suffer 
in their inner nature, but they would also 
become a menace to Society, already suffer- 
ing sufficiently at the hands of men whose 
intellect is more evolved than their con- 
science. Hence arises the necessity of with- 
holding certain teachings from those who, 
morally, are as yet unfitted to receive 
them; and this necessity presses on every 
Teacher who is able to impart such know- 

17 



Esoteric Christianity 



ledge. He desires to give it to those who 
will use the powers it confers for the gen- 
eral good, for quickening human evolu- 
tion ; but he equally desires to be no party 
to giving it to those who would use it 
for their own aggrandisement at the cost 
of others. 

Nor is this a matter of theory only, ac- 
cording to the Occult Eecords, which give 
the details of the events alluded to in Gene- 
sis vi. et seq. This knowledge was, in those 
ancient times and on the continent of Atlan- 
tis, given without any rigid conditions as to 
the moral elevation, purity, and unselfish- 
ness of the candidates. Those who were 
intellectually qualified were taught, just as 
men are taught ordinary science in modern 
days. The publicity now so imperiously 
demanded was then given, with the result 
that men became giants in knowledge but 
also giants in evil, till the earth groaned 
under her oppressors and the cry of a tram- 
pled humanity rang through the worlds. 
Then came the destruction of Atlantis, the 
whelming of that vast continent beneath the 
waters of the ocean, some particulars of 

18 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



which are given in the Hebrew Scriptures in 
the story of the Noachian deluge, and in the 
Hindu Scriptures of the further East in the 
story of Vaivasvata Manu. 

Since that experience of the danger of al- 
lowing unpurified hands to grasp the know- 
ledge which is power, the great Teachers 
have imposed rigid conditions as regards 
purity, unselfishness, and self-control on all 
candidates for such instruction. They dis- 
tinctly refuse to impart knowledge of this 
kind to any who will not consent to a rigid 
discipline, intended to eliminate separateness 
of feeling and interest. They measure the 
moral strength of the candidate even more 
than his intellectual development, for the 
teaching itself will develope the intellect 
while it puts a strain on the moral nature. 
Far better that the Great Ones should be 
assailed by the ignorant for Their supposed 
selfishness in withholding knowledge, than 
that They should precipitate the world into 
another Atlantean catastrophe. 

So much of theory we lay down as bearing 
on the necessity of a hidden side in all relig- 
ions. When from theory we turn to facts, 

19 



Esoteric Christianity 

we naturally ask: Has this hidden side 
existed in the past, forming a part of the 
religions of the world? The answer must 
be an immediate and unhesitating affir- 
mative ; every great religion has claimed to 
possess a hidden teaching, and has declared 
that it is the respository of theoretical mys- 
tic, and further of practical mystic, or oc- 
cult, knowledge. The mystic explanation 
of popular teaching was public, and ex- 
pounded the latter as an allegory, giving to 
crude and irrational statements and stories 
a meaning which the intellect could accept. 
Behind this theoretical mysticism, as it was 
behind the popular, there existed further the 
practical mysticism, a hidden spiritual teach- 
ing, which was only imparted under definite 
conditions, conditions known and published, 
that must be fulfilled by every candidate. 
S. Clement of Alexandria mentions this 
division of the Mysteries. After purifica- 
tion, he says, "are the Minor Mysteries, 
which have some foundation of instruction 
and of preliminary preparation for what is 
to come after; and the Great Mysteries, in 
which nothing remains to be learned of the 

20 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



universe, but only to contemplate and com- 
prehend nature and things.' 51 

This position cannot be controverted as 
regards the ancient religions. The Myste- 
ries of Egypt were the glory of that ancient 
land, and the noblest sons of Greece, such 
as Plato, went to Sals and to Thebes to be 
initiated by Egyptian Teachers of Wisdom. 
The Mithraic Mysteries of the Persians, the 
Orphic and Bacchic Mysteries and the later 
Eleusinian semi-Mysteries of the Greeks, the 
Mysteries of Samothrace, Scythia, Chaldea, 
are familiar in name, at least, as household 
words. Even in the extremely diluted form 
of the Eleusinian Mysteries, their value is 
most highly praised by the most eminent 
men of Greece^ as Pindar, Sophocles, Isoc- 
rates, Plutarch, and Plato. Especially 
were they regarded as useful with regard 
to post-mortem existence, as the Initiated 
learned that which ensured his future hap- 
piness. Sopater further alleged that Initia- 
tion established a kinship of the soul with 
the divine Nature, and in the exoteric Hymn 

1 Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexan- 
dria. Stromata, bk. V., ch. xi. 

21 



Esoteric Christianity 



to Demeter covert references are made to 
the holy child, Iacchus, and to his death and 
resurrection, as dealt with in the Mysteries. 1 
From Iamblichus, the great theurgist of 
the third and fourth centuries A.D., much 
may be learned as to the object of the Mys- 
teries. Theurgy was magic, "the last part 
of the sacerdotal science," 2 and was prac- 
tised in the Greater Mysteries, to evoke the 
appearance of superior Beings. The theory 
on which these Mysteries were based may be 
very briefly thus stated : There is One, prior 
to all beings, immovable, abiding in the 
solitude of His own unity. From That 
arises the Supreme God, the Self-begotten, 
the Good, the Source of all things, the Root, 
the 'God of Gods, the First Cause, unfolding 
Himself into Light. 3 From Him springs 
the Intelligible World, or ideal universe, the 
Universal Mind, the Nous, and the incor- 
poreal or intelligible Gods belong to this. 



1 8ee Article on " My steries, " Encyc. Britannica, ninth 
edition. 

2 Psellus, quoted in Iamblichus on the Mysteries. T. 
Taylor, p. 343, note on p. 23, second edition. 
z Iamblichus, as ante, p. 301. 

22 



The Hidden Side of Religions 

From this the World-Soul, to which belong 
the " divine intellectual forms which are 
present with the visible bodies of the Gods." 1 
Then come various hierarchies of superhu- 
man beings, Archangels, Archons (Eulers) 
or Cosmocratores, Angels, Daimons, &c. 
Man is a being of a lower order, allied to 
these in his nature, and is capable of know- 
ing them ; this knowledge was achieved in 
the Mysteries, and it led to union with 
God. 2 In the Mysteries these doctrines are 

1 Ibid., p. 72. 

2 The article on " Mysticism " in the Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica has the following on the teaching of Plotinus (204 — 206 
a.d.): "The One [the Supreme God spoken of above] is 
exalted above the nous and the ' ideas ' ; it transcends ex- 
istence altogether and is not cognisable by reason. Re- 
maining itself in repose, it rays out, as it were, from its 
own fulness, an image of itself, which is called nous, and 
which constitutes the system of ideas of the intelligible 
world. The soul is in turn the image or product of the 
nous, and the soul by its motion begets corporeal matter. 
The soul thus faces two ways — towards the nous, from 
which it springs, and towards the material life, which is 
its own product. Ethical endeavour consists in the re- 
pudiation of the sensible; material existence is itself 

estrangement from God To reach the ultimate goal, 

thought itself must be left behind ; for thought is a form 
of motion, and the desire of the soul is for the motionless 

23 



Esoteric Christianity 



expounded, " the progression from, and the 
regression of all things to, the One, and the 
entire domination of the One," 1 and, further, 
these different Beings were evoked, and ap- 
peared, sometimes to teach, sometimes, by 
Their mere presence, to elevate and purify. 
"The Gods," says Iamblichus, " being be- 
nevolent and propitious, impart their light 
to theurgists in unenvying abundance, call- 
ing upwards their souls to themselves, pro- 
curing them a union with themselves, and 
accustoming them, while they are yet in 
body, to be separated from bodies, and to be 
led round to their eternal and intelligible 
principle." 2 For " the soul having a two- 
fold life, one being in conjunction with 
body, but the other being separate from all 

rest which belongs to the One. The union with transcend- 
ent deity is not so much knowledge or vision as ecstasy, 
coalescence, contact.'''' Neo-Platonism is thus "first of all 
a system of complete rationalism ; it is assumed, in other 
words, that reason is capable of mapping out the whole 
system of things. But, inasmuch as a God is affirmed be- 
yond reason, the mysticism becomes in a sense the neces- 
sary complement of the would-be all-embracing rationalism. 
The system culminates in a mystical act." 

1 Iamblichus, as ante, p. 73. 

Ubid., pp. 55 ? 56. 

24 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



body," 1 it is most necessary to learn to sep- 
arate it from the body, that thus it may 
unite itself with the Gods by its intellectual 
and divine part, and learn the genuine prin- 
ciples of knowledge, and the truths of the 
intelligible world. 2 "The presence of the 
Gods, indeed, imparts to us health of body, 
virtue of soul, purity of intellect, and, in one 
word, elevates everything in us to its proper 
nature. It exhibits that which is not body 
as body to the eyes of the soul, through 
those of the body." 3 When the Gods ap- 
pear, the soul receives " a liberation from the 
passions, a transcendent perfection, and an 
energy entirely more excellent, and partici- 
pates of divine love and an immense joy." 4 
By this we gain a divine life, and are ren- 
dered in reality divine. 5 

The culminating point of the Mysteries 
was when the Initiate became a God, 
whether by union with a divine Being out- 
side himself, or by the realisation of the di- 
vine Self within him. This was termed ec- 

l Ibid., pp. 118, 119. >Ibid., pp. 118, 119. 

3 Ibid., pp. 95, 100. 4 Ibid., p. 101. 

"Ibid., p. 330. 
25 



Esoteric Christianity 



stasy, and was a state of what the Indian 
Yogi would term high Samadhi, the gross 
body being entranced and the freed soul 
effecting its own union with the Great One. 
This "ecstasy is not a faculty properly so 
called, it is a state of the soul, which trans- 
forms it in such a way that it then per- 
ceives what was previously hidden from it. 
The state will not be permanent until our 
union with God is irrevocable; here, in 

earth life, ecstasy is but a flash 

Man can cease to become man, and become 
God ; but man cannot be God and man at 
the same time." 1 Plotinus states that he 
had reached this state "but three times as 
yet.' 5 

So also Proclus taught that the one sal- 
vation of the soul was to return to her 
intellectual form, and thus escape from the 
"circle of generation, from abundant wan- 
derings," and reach true Being, "to the 
uniform and simple energy of the period of 
sameness, instead of the abundantly wan- 
dering motion of the period which is char- 
acterised by difference." This is the life 



1 G. R. S. Mead. Plotinus, p. 42. 
26 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



sought by those initiated by Orpheus into 
the Mysteries of Bacchus and Proserpine, 
and this is the result of the practice of the 
purificatory, or cathartic, virtues. 1 

These virtues were necessary for the 
Greater Mysteries, as they concerned the 
purifying of the subtle body, in which the 
soul worked when out of the gross body. 
The political or practical virtues belonged to 
man's ordinary life, and were required to 
some extent before he could be a candidate 
even for such a School as is described below. 
Then came the cathartic virtues, by which 
the subtle body, that of the emotions and 
lower mind, was purified ; thirdly the intel- 
lectual, belonging to the Augoeides, or the 
light-form of the intellect; fourthly the 
contemplative, or paradigmatic, by which 
union with God was realised. Porphyry 
writes: "He who energises according to the 
practical virtues is a worthy man ; but he 
who energises according to the purifying 
virtues is an angelic man, or is also a good 
daimon. He who energises according to 
the intellectual virtues alone is a God ; but 

1 JambUchus, p. 364, note on p. 134. 
27 



Esoteric Christianity 



he who energises according to the paradig- 
matic virtues is the Father of the Gods." 1 

Much instruction was also given in the 
Mysteries by the archangelic and other hier- 
archies, and Pythagoras, the great teacher 
who was initiated in India, and who gave 
"the knowledge of things that are " to his 
pledged disciples, is said to have possessed 
such a knowledge of music that he could use 
it for the controlling of men's wildest pas- 
sions, and the illuminating of their minds. 
Of this, instances are given by Iamblichus 
in his Life of Pythagoras. It seems proba- 
ble that the title of Theodidaktos, given to 
Ammonius Saccas, the master of Plotinus, 
referred less to the sublimity of his teach- 
ings than to this divine instruction received 
by him in the Mysteries. 

Some of the symbols used are explained 
by Iamblichus, 2 who bids Porphyry remove 
from his thought the image of the thing 
symbolised and reach its intellectual mean- 
ing. Thus " mire " meant everything that 
was bodily and material; the "God sitting 

1 G. R. S. Mead. Orpheus, pp. 285, 286. 

2 Iamblichus, p. 364, note on p. 134. v 

28 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



above the lotus " signified that God tran- 
scended both the mire and the intellect, 
symbolised by the lotus, and was established 
in Himself, being seated. If " sailing in a 
ship," His rule over the world was pictured. 
And so on. 1 On this use of symbols Proclus 
remarks that "the Orphic method aimed 
at revealing divine things by means of sym- 
bols, a method common to all writers of di- 
vine lore." 2 

The Pythagorean School in Magna Graecia 
was closed at the end of the sixth century 
B.C., owing to the persecution of the civil 
power, but other communities existed, keep- 
ing up the sacred tradition. 3 Mead states 
that Plato intellectualised it, in order to 
protect it from an increasing profanation, 
and the Eleusinian rites preserved some of 
its forms, having lost its substance. The 
Neo-Platonists inherited from Pythagoras 
and Plato, and their works should be stud- 
ied by those who would realise something of 
the grandeur and the beauty preserved for 
the world in the Mysteries. 

1 Iamblichus, p. 285, et seq. 

3 G. R. S. Mead. Orpheus, p. 59. *lbid., p. 30. 
29 



Esoteric Christianity 

The Pythagorean School itself may serve 
as a type of the discipline enforced. On this 
Mead gives many interesting details, 1 and 
remarks: "The authors of antiquity are 
agreed that this discipline had succeeded in 
producing the highest examples, not only of 
the purest chastity and sentiment, but also 
a simplicity of manners, a delicacy, and a 
taste for serious pursuits which was unpar- 
alleled. This is admitted even by Christian 
writers." The School had outer disciples, 
leading the family and social life, and the 
above quotation refers to these. In the in- 
ner School were three degrees — the first of 
Hearers, who studied for two years in si- 
lence, doing their best to master the teach- 
ings ; the second degree was of Mathematici, 
wherein were taught geometry and music, 
the nature of number, form, colour, and 
sound; the third degree was of Physici, who 
mastered cosmogony and metaphysics. This 
led up to the true Mysteries. Candidates 
for the School must be "of an unblemished 
reputation and of a contented disposition." 

The close identity between the methods 

l IMd. 9 pp. 263, 271. 
30 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



and aims pursued in these various Mysteries 
and those of Yoga in India is patent to the 
most superficial observer. It is not, how- 
ever, necessary to suppose that the nations 
of antiquity drew from India ; all alike drew 
from the one source, the Grand Lodge of 
Central Asia, which sent out its Initiates to 
every land. They all taught the same doc- 
trines, and pursued the same methods, lead- 
ing to the same ends. But there was much 
intercommunication between the Initiates 
of all nations, and there was a common 
language and a common symbolism. Thus 
Pythagoras journeyed among the Indians, 
and received in India a high Initiation, and 
Apollonius of Tyana later followed in his 
steps. Quite Indian in phrase as well as 
thought were the dying words of Plotinus : 
"Now I seek to lead back the Self within 
me to the All-self." 1 

Among the Hindus the duty of teaching 
the supreme knowledge only to the worthy 
was strictly insisted on. "The deepest 
mystery of the end of knowledge .... is 
not to be declared to one who is not a son or 



1 G. R S. Mead. Plotinus, p. 20. 
31 



Esoteric Christianity 



a pupil, and who is not tranquil in mind." 1 
So again, after a sketch of Yoga we read: 
" Stand up! awake! having found the Great 
Ones, listen! The road is as difficult to 
tread as the sharp edge of a razor. Thus 
say the wise." 2 The Teacher is needed, for 
written teaching alone does not suffice. 
The "end of knowledge" is to know God — 
not only to believe; to become one with 
God — not only to worship afar off. Man 
must know the reality of the divine Exist- 
ence, and then know — not only vaguely be- 
lieve and hope — that his own innermost Self 
is one with God, and that the aim of life is 
to realise that unity. Unless religion can 
guide a man to that realisation, it is but 
"as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." 3 
So also it was asserted that man should 
learn to leave the gross body: "Let a man 
with firmness separate it [the soul] from his 
own body, as a grass-stalk from its sheath." 4 
And it was written! "In the golden high- 
est sheath dwells the stainless, changeless 

1 ShvetdshvataropanisJiat, vi., 22. 

2 Katfiopanishat, iii., 14. 8 1. Cor. xiii. 1. 

4 KatJwpanisJiat, vi. 17. 

h 



The Hidden Side of Religions 



Brahman ; It is the radiant white Light of 
lights, known to the knowers of the Self." 1 
" When the seer sees the golden-coloured 
Creator, the Lord, the Spirit, whose womb 
is Brahman, then, having thrown away 
merit and demerit, stainless, the wise one 
reaches the highest union." 2 

Nor were the Hebrews without their se- 
cret knowledge and their Schools of Initia- 
tion. The company of prophets at Naioth 
presided over by Samuel 3 formed such a 
School, and the oral teaching was handed 
down by them. Similar Schools existed at 
Bethel and Jericho, 4 and in Cruden's Con- 
cordance 5 there is the following interesting 
note : " The Schools or Colleges of the proph- 
ets are the first [schools] of which we have 
any account in Scripture; where the chil- 
dren of the prophets, that is, their disciples, 
lived in the exercises of a retired and 
austere life, in study and meditation, and 
reading of the law of God. . . . These 
Schools, or Societies, of the prophets were 

1 Munclakopanishat, II., ii. 9. ^IMd., III., i. 3. 
3 1. Sam. xix. 20. 4 II. Kings ii. 2, 5. 

5 Under "School." 
3 33 



Esoteric Christianity 



succeeded by the Synagogues." The Kab- 
bala, which contains the semi-public teach- 
ing, is, as it now stands, a modern compila- 
tion, part of it being the work of Eabbi 
Moses de Leon, who died a.d. 1305. It con- 
sists of five books, Bahir, Zohar, Sepher 
Sephiroth, Sepher Yetzirah, and Asch Met- 
zareth, and is asserted to have been transmit- 
ted orally from very ancient times— as an- 
tiquity is reckoned historically. Dr. Wynn 
Westcott says that " Hebrew tradition as- 
signs the oldest parts of the Zohar to a date 
antecedent to the building of the second 
Temple;" and Eabbi Simeon ben Jochai is 
said to have written down some of it in the 
first century a.d. The Sepher Yetzirah is 
spoken of by Saadjah Gaon, who died a.d. 
940, as "very ancient." 1 Some portions of 
the ancient oral teaching have been incorpo- 
rated in the Kabbala as it now stands, but 
the true archaic wisdom of the Hebrews re- 
mains in the guardianship of a few of the 
true sons of Israel. 

Brief as is this outline, it is sufficient to 



1 Dr. Wynn Westcott. Sepher Yetzirah, p. 9. 
34 



The Hidden Side of Religions 

show the existence of a hidden side in the 
religions of the world outside Christianity, 
and we may now examine the question 
whether Christianity was an exception to 
this universal rule. 



35 



Chapter II. 



THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHKISTIANITY. 

(a) The Testimony of the Scriptures. 

Having seen that the religions of the past 
claimed with one voice to have a hidden 
side, to be custodians of "Mysteries," and 
that this claim was endorsed by the seeking 
of initiation by the greatest men, we must 
now ascertain whether Christianity stands 
outside this circle of religions, and alone is 
without a Gnosis, offering to the world only 
a simple faith and not a profound knowl- 
edge. Were it so, it would indeed be a sad 
and lamentable fact, proving Christianity to 
be intended for a class only, and not for all 
types of human beings. But that it is not 
so, we shall be able to prove beyond the pos- 
sibility of rational doubt. 

And that proof is the thing which Chris- 
tendom at this time most sorely needs, for 
the very flower of Christendom is perishing 

36 



/ 

idden Side of Christianity 

ick of knowledge. If the esoteric 
ing can be re-established and win pa- 
and earnest students, it will not be 
before the occult is also restored. Dis- 
ciples of the Lesser Mysteries will become 
candidates for the Greater, and with the re- 
gaining of knowledge will come again the 
authority of teaching. And truly the need 
is great. For, looking at the world around 
us, we find that religion in the West is suf- 
fering from the very difficulty that theoret- 
ically we should expect to find. Christian- 
ity, having lost its mystic and esoteric 
teaching, is losing its hold on a large num- 
ber of the more highly educated, and the 
partial revival during the past few years is 
co-incident with the re-introduction of some 
mystic teaching. It is patent to every stu- 
dent of the closing forty years of the last 
century, that crowds of thoughtful | .and 
moral people have slipped away from the 
churches, because the teachings they /de- 
ceived there outraged their intelligence land 
shocked their moral sense. It is idle to pre- 
tend that the wide-spread i^gnpsticisM of 

this period had its root .ea^h^ii^jlwknpf 

37 



Esoteric Christianity 



morality or in deliberate crookedness of 
mind. Everyone who carefully studies the 
phenomena presented will admit that men 
of strong intellect have been driven out of 
Christianity by the crudity of the religious 
ideas set before them, the contradictions in 
the authoritative teachings, the views as to 
God, man, and the universe that no trained 
intelligence could possibly admit. Nor can 
it be said that any kind of moral degrada- 
tion lay at the root of the revolt against the 
dogmas of the Church. The rebels were 
not too bad for their religion ; on the con- 
trary, it was the religion that was too bad 
for them. The rebellion against popular 
Christianity was due to the awakening and 
the growth of conscience; it was the con- 
science that revolted, as well as the intelli- 
gence, against teachings dishonouring to 
God and man alike, that represented God 
as a tyrant, and man as essentially evil, 
gaining salvation by slavish submission. 

The reason for this revolt lay in the grad- 
ual descent of Christian teaching into so- 
called simplicity, so that the most ignorant 
might be able to grasp it. Protestant relig- 

88 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



ionists asserted loudly that nothing ought 
to be preached save that which every one 
could grasp, that the glory of the Gospel lay 
in its simplicity, and that the child and the 
unlearned ought to be able to understand 
and apply it to life. True enough, if by 
this it were meant that there are some re- 
ligious truths that all can grasp, and that 
a religion fails if it leaves the lowest, the 
most ignorant, the most dull, outside the 
pale of its elevating influence. But false, 
utterly false, if by this it be meant that re- 
ligion has no truths that the ignorant can- 
not understand, that it is so poor and limited 
a thing that it has nothing to teach which 
is above the thought of the unintelligent or 
above the moral purview of the degraded. 
False, fatally false, if such be the meaning ; 
for as that view spreads, occupying the pul- 
pits and being sounded in the churches, 
many noble men and women, whose hearts 
are half- broken as they sever the links that 
bind them to their early faith, withdraw 
from the churches, and leave their places to 
be filled by the hypocritical and the igno- 
rant, They pass either into a state of pas- 

39 



Esoteric Christianity 



sive agnosticism, or — if they be young and 
enthusiastic — into a condition of active ag- 
gression, not believing that that can be the 
highest which outrages alike intellect and 
conscience, and preferring the honesty of 
open unbelief to the drugging of the intel- 
lect and the conscience at the bidding of an 
authority in which they recognise nothing 
that is divine. 

In thus studying the thought of our time 
we see that the question of a hidden teach- 
ing in connection with Christianity becomes 
of vital importance. Is Christianity to sur- 
vive as the religion of the West? Is it to 
live through the centuries of the future, 
and to continue to play a part in moulding 
the thought of the evolving western races? 
If it is to live, it must regain the knowledge 
it has lost, and again have its mystic and 
its occult teachings; it must again stand 
forth as an authoritative teacher of spiritual 
verities, clothed with the only authority 
worth anything, the authority of knowl- 
edge. If these teachings be regained, their 
influence will soon be seen in wider and 
deeper views of truth ; dogmas, which now 

40 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



seem like mere shells and fetters, shall again 
be seen to be partial presentments of fun- 
damental realities. First, Esoteric Chris- 
tianity will reappear in the "Holy Place," 
in the Temple, so that all who are capable 
of receiving it may follow its lines of pub- 
lished thought ; and secondly, Occult Chris- 
tianity will again descend into the Adytum, 
dwelling behind the Veil which guards the 
"Holy of Holies," into which only the Initi- 
ate may enter. Then again will occult 
teaching be within the reach of those who 
qualify themselves to receive it, according 
to the ancient rules, those who are willing in 
modern days to meet the ancient demands, 
made on all those who would fain know the 
reality and truth of spiritual things. 

Once again we turn our eyes to history, 
to see whether Christianity was unique 
among religions in having no inner teach- 
ing, or whether it resembled all others in 
possessing this hidden treasure. Such a 
question is a matter of evidence, not of the- 
ory, and must be decided by the authority 
of the existing documents and not by the 
mere ipse dixit of modern Christians. 

41 



Esoteric Christianity 



As a matter of fact both the "New Testa- 
ment " and the writings of the early Church 
make the same declarations as to the posses- 
sion by the Church of such teachings, and 
we learn from these the fact of the exist- 
ence of Mysteries — called the Mysteries of 
Jesus, or the Mystery of the Kingdom — the 
conditions imposed on candidates, some- 
thing of the general nature of the teachings 
given, and other details. Certain passages 
in the "New Testament" would remain en- 
tirely obscure, if it were not for the light 
thrown on them by the definite statements 
of the Fathers and Bishops of the Church, 
but in that light they became clear and in- 
telligible. 

It would indeed have been strange had it 
been otherwise when we consider the lines 
of religious thought which influenced primi- 
tive Christianity. Allied to the Hebrews, 
the Persians, and the Greeks, tinged by the 
older faiths of India, deeply coloured by 
Syrian and Egyptian thought, this later 
branch of the great religious stem could not 
do other than again re-affirm the ancient 
traditions, and place in the grasp of west- 

42 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



ern races the full treasure of the ancient 
teaching. ".The faith once delivered to the 
saints " would indeed have been shorn of its 
chief value if, when delivered to the West, 
the pearl of esoteric teaching had been with- 
held. 

The first evidence to be examined is that 
of the "New Testament." For our purpose 
we may put aside all the vexed questions of 
different readings and different authors, 
that can only be decided by scholars. Criti- 
cal scholarship has much to say on the age 
of MSS., on the authenticity of documents, 
and so on. But we need not concern our- 
selves with these. We may accept the ca- 
nonical Scriptures, as showing what was 
believed in the early Church as to the 
teaching of the Christ and of His imme- 
diate followers, and see what they say as to 
the existence of a secret teaching given only 
to the few. Having seen the words put into 
the mouth of Jesus Himself, and regarded 
by the Church as of supreme authority, we 
will look at the writings of the great apos- 
tle S. Paul; then we will consider the state- 
ments made by those who inherited the 

43 



Esoteric Christianity 



apostolic tradition and guided the Church 
during the first centuries a.d. Along this 
unbroken line of tradition and written testi- 
mony the proposition that Christianity had 
a hidden side can be established. We shall 
further find that the Lesser Mysteries of 
mystic interpretation can be traced through 
the centuries to the beginning of the 19th 
century, and that though there were no 
Schools of Mysticism recognised as prepara- 
tory to Initiation, after the disappearance of 
the Mysteries, yet great Mystics, from time 
to time, reached the lower stages of ecstasy, 
by their own sustained efforts, aided doubt- 
less by invisible Teachers. 

The words of the Master Himself are 
clear and definite, and were, as we shall 
see, quoted by Origen as referring to the 
secret teaching preserved in the Church. 
"And when he was alone, they that were 
about Him with the twelve asked of Him 
the parable. And He said unto them, 
" Unto you it is given to know the mystery 
of the kingdom of God, but unto them that 
are without, all these things are done in 
parables.'" And later: " With many such 

44 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



parables spake He the word unto them, as 
they were able to hear it. But without a 
parable spake He not unto them ; and when 
they were alone He expounded all things 
to His disciples." 1 Mark the significant 
words, "when they were alone," and the 
phrase, "them that are without." So also 
in the version of S. Matthew: "Jesus sent 
the multitude away, and went into the 
house; and His disciples came unto Him." 
These teachings given "in the house," the 
innermost meanings of His instructions, 
were alleged to be handed on from teacher 
to teacher. The Gospel gives, it will be 
noted, the allegorical mystic explanation, 
that which we have called The Lesser Mys- 
teries, but the deeper meaning was said to 
be given only to the Initiates. 

Again, Jesus tells even His apostles: "I 
have yet many things to say to you, but ye 
cannot bear them now." 2 Some of them 
were probably said after His death, when 
He was seen of His disciples, "speaking of 
the things pertaining to the kingdom of 

J S. Mark iv. 10, 11, 33, 34. See also S. Matt. xiii. 11, 
34, 36, and S. Luke viii. 10. 2 S. John xvi. 12. 

45 



Esoteric Christianity 



God. 5)1 None of these have been publicly 
recorded, but who can believe that they 
were neglected or forgotten, and were not 
handed down as a priceless possession? 
There was a tradition in the Church that 
He visited His apostles for a considerable 
period after His death, for the sake of giv- 
ing them instruction — a fact that will be 
referred to later — and in the famous Gnos- 
tic treatise, the Pistis Sophia, we read: "It 
came to pass, when Jesus had risen from 
the dead, that He passed eleven years 
speaking with His disciples and instructing 
them." 2 Then there is the phrase, which 
many would fain soften and explain away: 
" Give not that which is holy to the dogs, 
neither cast ye your pearls before swine " 3 — 
a precept which is of general application 
indeed, but was considered by the early 
Church to refer to the secret teachings. It 
should be remembered that the words had 
not the same harshness of sound in the an- 
cient days as they have now ; for the words 

1 Acts i. 3. 

2 Loc. cit. Trans, by G. R. S. Mead. I. i. 1. 
3 S. Matt. vii. 6. 

46 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



"dogs" — like "the vulgar," "the profane" 
— was applied by those within a certain cir- 
cle to all who were outside its pale, wheth- 
er by a society or association, or by a nation 
— as by the Jews to all Gentiles. 1 It was 
sometimes used to designate those who were 
outside the circle of Initiates, and we find it 
employed in that sense in the early Church ; 
those who, not having been initiated into 
the Mysteries, were regarded as being out- 
side "the kingdom of God," or "the spirit- 
ual Israel," had this name applied to them. 

There were several names, exclusive of 
the term "The Mystery," or "The Myste- 
ries," used to designate the sacred circle of 
the Initiktes or connected with Initiation: 
"The Kingdom," "The Kingdom of God," 
"The Kingdom of Heaven," "The Narrow 
Path," "The Strait Gate," "The Perfect," 
"The Saved," "Life Eternal," "Life," 
"The Second Birth," "A Little One," "A 
Little Child." The meaning is made plain 
by the use of these words in early Christian 

1 As to the Greek woman : " It is not meet to take the 
children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." — S. Mark 
vii. 27. 

47 



Esoteric Christianity 



writings, and in some cases even outside the 
Christian pale. Thus the term, "The Per- 
fect,' 5 was used by the Essenes, who had 
three orders in their communities : the Neo- 
phytes, the Brethren, and the Perfect- — the 
latter being Initiates; and it is employed 
generally in that sense in old writings. 
"The Little Child' 5 was the ordinary name 
for a candidate just initiated, i.e., who had 
just taken his "second birth." 

When we know this use, many obscure 
and otherwise harsh passages become intel- 
ligible. "Then said one unto Him: Lord, 
are there few that be saved? And He said 
unto them : Strive to enter in at the strait 
gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek 
to enter in and shall not be able." 1 If this 
be applied in the ordinary Protestant way 
to salvation from everlasting hell-fire, the 
statement becomes incredible, shocking. 
No Saviour of the world can be supposed 
to assert that many will seek to avoid hell 
and enter heaven, but will not be able to do 
so. But as applied to the narrow gateway 
of Initiation and to salvation from rebirth, 



1 S. Luke xiii. 23, 24. 
48 



Hidden Side of Christianity 

it is perfectly true and natural. So again : 
" Enter ye in at the strait gate ; for wide is 
the gate and broad is the way that leadeth 
to destruction, and many there be which go 
in thereat; because strait is the gate and 
narrow is the way which leadeth unto life ; 
and few there be that find it." 1 The warn- 
ing which immediately follows against the 
false prophets, the teachers of the dark 
Mysteries, is most apposite in this connec- 
tion. No student can miss the familiar 
ring of these words used in this same sense 
in other writings. The " ancient narrow 
way" is familiar to all; the path "difficult 
to tread as the sharp edge of a razor," 2 al- 
ready mentioned; the going "from death to 
death " of those who follow the flower- 
strewn path of desires, who do not know 
God ; for those men only become immortal 
and escape from the wide mouth of death, 
from ever repeated destruction, who have 
quitted all desires. 1 The allusion to death 
is, of course, to the repeated births of the 
soul into gross material existence, regarded 

1 S. Matt. vii. 13, 14 2 Kathopanishat, II. iv. 10, 11. 
3 Brihaddranyalcopani§Iiat, IV. iv. 7. 
4 * 49 



Esoteric Christianity 



always as " death " compared to the "life" 
of the higher and subtler worlds. 

This "Strait Gate" was the gateway of 
Initiation, and through it a candidate en- 
tered "The Kingdom." And it ever has 
been, and must be, true that only a few can 
enter that gateway, though myriads — an 
exceedingly "great multitude, which no 
man could number," 1 not a few — enter into 
the happiness of the heaven-world. So also 
spoke another great Teacher, nearly three 
thousand years earlier : "Among thousands 
of men scarce one striveth for perfection; 
of the successful strivers scarce one know- 
eth me in essence." 2 For the Initiates are 
few in each generation, the flower of hu- 
manity; but no gloomy sentence of ever- 
lasting woe is pronounced in this statement 
on the vast majority of the human race. 
The saved are, as Proclus taught, 3 those 
who escape from the circle of generation, 
within which humanity is bound. 

In this connection we may recall the story 
of the young man who came to Jesus, and, 

1 Rev, vii, 9. 2 Baligavad Gitd, vii, 3. 

'M p. 26, 
50 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



addressing Him as "Good Master," asked 
how he might win eternal life — the well- 
recognised liberation from rebirth by 
knowledge of God. 1 His first answer w T as 
the regular exoteric precept: "Keep the 
commandments." But when the young 
man answered: "All these things have I 
kept from my youth up;" then, to that 
conscience free from all knowledge of trans- 
gression, came the answer of the true 
Teacher: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and 
sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, 
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and 
come and follow me." " If thou wilt be per- 
fect," be a member of the Kingdom, poverty 
and obedience must be embraced. And then 
to His own disciples Jesus explains that a 
rich man can hardly enter the Kingdom of 
Heaven, such entrance being more difficult 
than for a camel to pass through the eye of 
a needle; with men such entrance could not 
be, with God all things were possible. 2 
Only God in man can pass that barrier. 

1 It must be remembered that the Jews believed that all 
imperfect souls returned to live again on earth, 
2 S. Matt. xix. 16-26. 

51 



Esoteric Christianity 



This text has been variously explained 
away, it being obviously impossible to take 
it in its surface meaning, that a rich man 
cannot enter a post-mortem state of happi- 
ness. Into that state the rich man may 
enter as well as the poor, and the universal 
practice of Christians shows that they do 
not for one moment believe that riches im- 
peril their happiness after death. But if 
the real meaning of the Kingdom of Heav- 
en be taken, we have the expression of a 
simple and direct fact. For that know- 
ledge of God which is Eternal Life 1 cannot 
be gained till everything earthly is surren- 
dered, cannot be learned until everything 
has been sacrificed. The man mast give up 
not only earthly wealth, which henceforth 
may only pass through his hands as stew- 
ard, 3 but he must give up his inner wealth 
as well, so far as he holds it as his own 
against the world; until he is stripped 
naked he cannot pass the narrow gateway. 
Such has ever been a condition of Initia- 
tion, and " poverty, obedience, chastity," 
has been the vow of the candidate. 



1 S. John xvii. 3. 
52 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



The " second birth " is another well-recog- 
nised term for Initiation ; even now in In- 
dia the higher castes are called " twice- 
born," and the ceremony that makes them 
twice-born is a ceremony of Initiation — 
mere husk truly, in these modern days, but 
the " pattern of things in the heavens." 1 
When Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, He 
states that " Except a man be born again, 
he cannot see the kingdom of God," and 
this birth is spoken of as that "of water 
and the Spirit ; " 2 this is the first Initiation ; 
a later one is that of " the Holy Ghost and 
fire," 8 the baptism of the Initiate in his 
manhood, as the first is that of birth, which 
welcomes him as "the Little Child " enter- 
ing the Kingdom. 4 How thoroughly this 
imagery was familiar among the mystics of 
the Jews is shown by the surprise evinced 
by Jesus when Nicodemus stumbled over 
His mystic phraseology: "Art thou a mas- 
ter of Israel, and knowest not these 
things?" 5 

Another precept of Jesus which remains 

1 Heb. ix. 23. 2 S. John iii. 3, 5. 3 S, Matt. iii. 11. 
4 Ibid., xviii. 3. 5 S. John iii. 10. 

53 



Esoteric Christianity 



as "a hard saying" to his followers is: "Be 
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect." 1 The ordi- 
nary Christian knows that he cannot possi- 
bly obey this command ; full of ordinary 
human frailties and weaknesses, how can 
he become perfect as God is perfect? See- 
ing the impossibility of the achievement set 
before him, he quietly puts it aside, and 
thinks no more about it. But seen as the 
crowning effort of many lives of steady 
improvement, as the triumph of the God 
within us over the lower nature, it comes 
within calculable distance, and we recall 
the words of Porphyry, how the man who 
achieves "the paradigmatic virtues is the 
Father of the Gods," 2 and that in the Mys- 
teries these virtues were acquired. 

S. Paul follows in the footsteps of his 
Master, and speaks in exactly the same 
sense, but, as might be expected from his 
organising work in the Church, with great- 
er explicitness and clearness. The student 
should read with attention chapters ii. and 
iii., and verse 1 of chaper iv. of the First 



1 B. Matt, v. 48. 3 Ante, p. 28. 

54 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



Epistle to the Corinthians, remembering, as 
he reads, that the words are addressed to 
baptised and communicant members of the 
Church, full members from the modern 
standpoint, although described as babes and 
carnal by the Apostle. They were not 
catechumens or neophytes, but men and 
women who were in complete possession 
of all the privileges and responsibilities 
of Church membership, recognised by the 
Apostle as being separate from the world, 
and expected not to behave as men of the 
world. They were, in fact, in possession of 
all that the modern Church gives to its 
members. Let us summarise the Apostle's 
words : 

"I came to you bearing the divine testi- 
mony, not alluring you with human wis- 
dom but with the power of the Spirit. 
Truly ' we speak wisdom among them that 
are perfect,' but it is no human wisdom. 
■ We speak the wisdom of God in a mys- 
tery, even the hidden wisdom, which God 
ordained before the world ' began, and 
which none even of the princes of this 

world know. The things of that wisdom 

55 



Esoteric Christianity 



are beyond men's thinking, ' but God hath 
revealed them unto us by his Spirit .... 
the deep things of God, ' 6 which the Holy 
Ghost teacheth.' 1 These are spiritual 
things, to be discerned only by the spiritual 
man, in whom is the mind of Christ. 
' And I, brethren, could not speak unto 
you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, 
even as unto babes in Christ. . . . Ye 
were not able to bear it, neither yet now 
are ye able. For ye are yet carnal. 5 'As 
a wise master-builder 2 I have laid the foun- 
dation, ' and ' ye are the temple of God, and 
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.' ' Let a 
man so account of us, as of the ministers 
of Christ, and stewards of the Mysteries of 
God." 5 

Can any one read this passage — and all 
that has been done in the summary is to 
bring out the salient points — without recog- 

1 Note how this chimes in with the promise of Jesus in 
S. John xvi. 12-14: "I have yet many things to say unto 
you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, 
the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all 

truth He will show you things to come. ... He 

shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." 

2 Another technical name in the Mysteries. 

56 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



nising the fact that the Apostle possessed a 
divine wisdom given in the Mysteries, that 
his Corinthian followers were not yet able 
to receive? And note the recurring techni- 
cal terms: the " wisdom," the " wisdom of 
God in a mystery," the "hidden wisdom," 
known only to the "spiritual" man, spoken 
of only among the "perfect," wisdom from 
which the non-" spiritual," the "babes in 
Christ," the " carnal," were excluded, 
known to the "wise master-builder," the 
"steward of the Mysteries of God." 

Again and again he refers to these Mys- 
teries. Writing to the Ephesian Christians 
he says that "by revelation," by the unveil- 
ing, had been "made known unto me the 
Mystery," and hence his "knowledge in the 
Mystery of Christ"; all might know of the 
"fellowship of the Mystery." 1 Of this 
Mystery, he repeated to the Colossians, he 
was "made a minister," "the Mystery 
which hath been hid from ages and from 
generations, but now is made manifest to 
His saints " ; not to the world, nor even to 
Christians, but only to the Holy Ones. To 

1 Eph. iii. 3, 4, 9. 
57 



Esoteric Christianity 



them was unveiled " the glory of this Mys- 
tery "; and what was it? "Christ in you" 
— a significant phrase, which we shall see, 
in a moment, belonged to the life of the 
Initiate; thus ultimately must every man 
learn the wisdom, and become " perfect in 
Christ Jesus." 1 These Colossians he bids 
pray "that God would open to us a door of 
utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ," 2 
a passage to which S. Clement refers as one 
in which the apostle "clearly reveals that 
knowledge belongs not to all." 3 So also he 
writes to his loved Timothy, bidding him 
select his deacons from those who hold "the 
Mystery of the faith in a pure conscience," 
that great "Mystery of Godliness," that he 
had learned, 4 knowledge of which was nec- 
essary for the teachers of the Church. 

1 Col. i. 23, 25-28. But S. Clement, in his Stromata, 
translates "every man," as "the whole man." See bk. V., 
ch. x. 2 Col. iv. 3. 

3 Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XII. Clement of Alexan- 
dria. Stromata, bk. V., ch. x. Some additional sayings 
of the Apostles will be found in the quotations from Clem- 
ent, showing what meaning they bore in the minds of 
those who succeeded the apostles, and were living in the 
same atmosphere of thought. 

4 1. Tim. iii. 9, 16. 

58 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



Now S. Timothy holds an important po- 
sition, as representing the next generation 
of Christian teachers. He was a pupil of 
S. Paul, and was appointed by him to guide 
and rule a portion of the Church. He had 
been, we learn, initiated into the Mysteries 
by S. Paul himself, and reference is made 
to this, the technical phrases once more 
serving as a clue. " This charge I commit 
unto thee, son Timothy, according to the 
prophecies which went before on thee," 1 the 
solemn benediction of the Initiator, who 
admitted the candidate; but not alone was 
the Initiator present: " Neglect not the 
gift that is in thee, which was given thee 
by prophecy, by the laying on of the hands 
of the Presbytery," 2 of the Elder Brothers. 
And he reminds him to lay hold of that 
" eternal life, whereunto thou art also 
called, and hast professed a good profession 
before many witnesses" 3 — the vow of the 
new Initiate, pledged in the presence of the 
Elder Brothers, and of the assembly of Ini- 
tiates. The knowledge then given was the 
sacred charge of which S. Paul cries out so 

1 1. Tim. i. 18. 2 Ibid., iv. 14. 3 Ibid., vi. 12. 
59 



Esoteric Christianity 



forcibly: "0 Timothy, keep that which is 
committed to thy trust " 1 — not the know- 
ledge commonly possessed by Christians, as 
to which no special obligation lay upon S. 
Timothy, but the sacred deposit committed 
to his trust as an Initiate, and essential to 
the welfare of the Church. S. Paul later 
recurs again to this, laying stress on the 
supreme importance of the matter in a way 
that would be exaggerated had the know- 
ledge been the common property of Chris- 
tian men: "Hold fast the form of sound 
words which thou hast heard of me. . . . 
That good thing which was committed unto 
thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwell- 
eth in us " 2 — as serious an adjuration as 
human lips could frame. Further, it was 
his duty to provide for the due transmission 
of this sacred deposit, that it might be 
handed on to the future, and the Church 
might never be left without teachers: "The 
things that thou hast heard of me among 
many witnesses " — the sacred oral teachings 
given in the assembly of Initiates, who 
bore witness to the accuracy of the trans- 

1 Ibid., 20. 2 II. Tim. i. 13, 14. 

60 



z 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



mission — "the same commit thou to faith- 
ful men, who shall be able to teach others 
also. 551 

The knowledge — or, if the phrase be pre- 
ferred, the supposition — that the Church 
possessed these hidden teachings throws 
a flood of light on the scattered remarks 
made by S. Paul about himself, and when 
they are gathered together, we have an 
outline of the evolution of the Initiate. S. 
Paul asserts that though he was already 
among the perfect, the initiated — for he 
says: "Let us, therefore, as many as be 
perfect, be thus minded 55 — he had not yet 
"attained, 55 was indeed not yet wholly 
"perfect, 55 for he had not yet won Christ, 
he had not yet reached the "high calling of 
God in Christ, 55 "the power of His resurrec- 
tion, and the fellowship of His sufferings, 
being made conformable unto His death ; 5? 
and he was striving, he says, "if by any 
means I might attain unto the resurrection 
of the dead. 5 5 2 For this was the Initiation 
that liberated, that made the Initiate the 
Perfect Master, the Risen Christ, freeing 

1 Ibid., ii. 2. 2 Phil. iii. 8, 10-12, 14, 15. 

61 



Esoteric Christianity 



Him finally from the "dead," from the hu- 
manity within the circle of generation, 
from the bonds that fettered the soul to 
gross matter. Here again we have a num- 
ber of technical terms, and even the surface 
reader should realise that the "resurrection 
of the dead " here spoken of cannot be the 
ordinary resurrection of the modern Chris- 
tian, supposed to be inevitable for all men, 
and therefore obviously not requiring any 
special struggle on the part of any one to 
attain to it. In fact the very word "at- 
tain " would be out of place in referring 
to a universal and inevitable human expe- 
rience. S. Paul could not avoid that resur- 
rection, according to the modern Christian 
view. What then was the resurrection to 
attain which he was making such strenuous 
efforts? Once more the only answer comes 
from the Mysteries. In them the Initiate 
approaching the Initiation that liberated 
from the cyle of rebirth, the circle of gene- 
ration, was called "the suffering Christ;" 
he shared the sufferings of the Saviour of 
the world, was crucified mystically, "made 
conformable to His death," and then at- 

62 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



tained the resurrection, the fellowship of 
the glorified Christ, and, after that, death 
had over him no power. 1 This was "the 
prize " towards which the great Apostle was 
pressing, and he urged "as many as be per- 
fect, "not the ordinary believer, thus also 
to strive. Let them not be content with 
what they had gained, but still press on- 
wards. 

This resemblance of the Initiate to the 
Christ is, indeed, the very groundwork of 
the Greater Mysteries, as we shall see more 
in detail when we study "The Mystical 
Christ." The Initiate was no longer to 
look on Christ as outside himself: "Though 
we have known Christ after the flesh, yet 
now henceforth know we Him no more." 8 

The ordinary believer had "put on 
Christ;" "as many of you as have been 
baptised into Christ have put on Christ." 3 
Then they were the "babes in Christ" to 
whom reference has already been made, 
and Christ was the Saviour to whom they 

1 Rev. i. 18. " I am He that liveth, and was dead ; and 
behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. " 
2 II. Cor. v. 16. 3 Gal. iii. 27. 

63 



Esoteric Christianity 



looked for help, knowing Him " after the 
flesh." But when they had conquered the 
lower nature and were no longer "carnal," 
then they w r ere to enter on a higher path, 
and were themselves to become Christ. 
This which he himself had already reached, 
was the longing of the Apostle for his fol- 
lowers: "My little children, of whom I 
travail in birth again until Christ be 
formed in- you." 1 Already he was their 
spiritual father, having "begotten you 
through the gospel. 552 But now "again" 
he was as a parent, as their mother to bring 
them to the second birth. Then the infant 
Christ, the Holy Child, was born in the soul 
"the hidden man of the heart"; 3 the Initi- 
ate thus became that "Little Child"; 
henceforth he was to live out in his own 
person the life of the Christ, until he be- 
came the "perfect man," growing "unto 
the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ." 4 Then he, as S. Paul was doing, 
filled up the sufferings of Christ in his own 
flesh, 5 and always bore "about in the body 

1 Gal. iv. 19. 2 1. Cor. iv. 15. 3 1. S. Pet. iii. 4. 
4 Eph. iv. 13. 5 Col. i. 24. 

64 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



the dying of the Lord Jesus," 1 so that he 
could truly say: "I am crucified with 
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me." 2 Thus was the Apos- 
tle himself suffering; thus he describes 
himself. And when the struggle is over, 
how different is the calm tone of triumph 
from the strained effort of the earlier years : 
"I am now ready to be offered, and the 
time of my departure is at hand. I have 
fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith; henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of right- 
eousness." 3 This was the crown given to 
"him that overcometh," of whom it is said 
by the ascended Christ: "I will make him 
a pillar in the temple of my God; and 
he shall go no more out." 4 For after the 
" Eesurrection " the Initiate has become the 
Perfect Man, the Master, and He goes out 
no more from the Temple, but from it 
serves and guides the worlds. 

It may be well to point out, ere closing 
this chapter, that S. Paul himself sanctions 



1 II. Cor. iv. 10. 
3 II. Tim. iv. 6-8. 
5 65 



2 Gal. ii. 20. 
4 Rev. iii. 12. 



Esoteric Christianity 



the use of the theoretical mystic teaching in 
explaining the historical events recorded in 
the Scriptures. The history therein writ- 
ten is not regarded by him as a mere record 
of facts, which occurred on the physical 
plane. A true mystic, he saw in the physi- 
cal events the shadows of the universal 
truths ever unfolding in higher and inner 
worlds, and knew that the events selected 
for preservation in occult writings were 
such as were typical, the explanation of 
which would subserve human instruction. 
Thus he takes the story of Abraham, Sarai, 
Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac, and saying, 
" which things are an allegory," he pro- 
ceeds to give the mystical interpretation. 1 
Referring to the escape of the Israelites 
from Egypt, he speaks of the Eed Sea as 
a baptism, of the manna and the water as 
spiritual meat and spiritual drink, of the 
rock from which the water flowed as 
Christ. 2 He sees the great mystery of the 
union of Christ and His Church in the 
human relation of husband and wife, and 
speaks of Christians as the flesh and the 

^alTTv. 22-31. 2 1 Cor. x. 1-4. 

66 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



bones of the body of Christ. 1 The writer 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews allegorises the 
whole Jewish system of worship. In the 
Temple he sees a pattern of the heavenly 
Temple, in the High Priest he sees Christ, 
in the sacrifices the offering of the spotless 
Son; the priests of the Temple are but "the 
example and shadow of heavenly things," 
of the heavenly priesthood serving in "the 
true tabernacle." A most elaborate alle- 
gory is thus worked out in chapters iii.-x., 
and the writer alleges that the Holy Ghost 
thus signified the deeper meaning ; all was 
"a figure for the time." 

In this view of the sacred writings, it is 
not alleged that the events recorded did not 
take place, but only that their physical hap- 
pening was a matter of minor importance. 
And such explanation is the unveiling of 
the Lesser Mysteries, the mystic teaching 
which is permitted to be given to the world. 
It is not, as many think, a mere play of the 
imagination, but is the outcome of a true 
intuition, seeing the patterns in the heav- 
ens, and not only the shadows cast by them 
on the screen of earthly time. 



1 Eph. v. 23-32. 
67 



Chapter III. 



THE HIDDEN SIDE OF CHBISTIANITY 

(concluded). 

(b) The Testimony of the Church. 

While it may be that some would be will- 
ing to admit the possession by the Apostles 
and their immediate successors of a deeper 
knowledge of spiritual things than was 
current among the masses of the believers 
around them, few will probably be willing 
to take the next step, and, leaving that 
charmed circle, accept as the depository of 
their sacred learning the Mysteries of the 
Early Church. Yet we have S. Paul pro- 
viding for the transmission of the unwrit- 
ten teaching, himself initiating S. Timothy, 
and instructing S. Timothy to initiate others 
in his turn, who should again hand it on 
to yet others. We thus see the provision 
of four successive generations of teachers, 
spoken of in the Scriptures themselves, and 

68 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



these would far more than overlap the wri- 
ters of the Early Church, who bear witness 
to the existence of the Mysteries. For 
among these are pupils of the Apostles 
themselves, though the most definite state- 
ments belong to those removed from the 
Apostles by one intermediate teacher. 
Now, as soon as we begin to study the wri- 
tings of the Early Church, we are met by 
the facts that there are allusions which 
are only intelligible by the existence of the 
Mysteries, and then statements that the 
Mysteries are existing. This might, of 
course, have been expected, seeing the 
point at which the New Testament leaves 
the matter, but it is satisfactory to find 
the facts answer to the expectation. 

The first witnesses are those called the 
Apostolic Fathers, the disciples of the Apos- 
tles ; but very little of their writings, and 
that disputed, remains. Not being written 
controversially, the statements are not as 
categorical as those of the later writers. 
Their letters are for the encouragement of 
the believers. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, 
and fellow-disciple with Ignatius of S. 

69 



Esoteric Christianity 

John, 1 expresses a hope that his correspon- 
dents are " well versed in the sacred Scrip- 
tures and that nothing is hid from you ; but 
to me this privilege is not yet granted " 2 — ■ 
writing, apparently, before reaching full 
Initiation. Barnabas speaks of communi- 
cating "some portion of what I have myself 
received," 3 and after expounding the Law 
mystically, declares that "we then, rightly 
understanding His commandments, explain 
them as the Lord intended." 4 Ignatius, 
Bishop of Antioch, a disciple of S. John, 5 
speaks of himself as "not yet perfect in 
Jesus Christ. For I now begin to be a dis- 
ciple, and I speak to you as my fellow-disci- 
ples," 6 and he speaks of them as "initiated 
into the mysteries of the Gospel with Paul, 



1 Vol. I. The Martyrdom of Ignatius, ch. iii. 

The translations used are those of Clarke's Ante-Nicene 
Library, a most useful compendium of Christian antiquity. 
The number of the volume which stands first in the refer- 
ences is the number of the volume in that Series. 

2 Ibid. The Epistle of Polycarp, ch. xii. 

3 Ibid. The Epistle of Barnabas, ch. i. 
4 Ibid., ch. x. 

5 Ibid. The Martyrdom of Ignatius, ch. i. 

6 Ibid. Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, ch. iii. 

70 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



the holy, the martyred." 1 Again he says: 
" Might I not write to you things more full 
of mystery? But I fear to do so, lest I 
should inflict injury on you who are but 
babes. Pardon me in this respect, lest, as 
not being able to receive their weighty im- 
port, ye should be strangled by them. For 
even I, though I am bound [for Christ] and 
am able to understand heavenly things, the 
angelic orders, and the different sorts of 
angels and hosts, the distinction between 
powers and dominions, and the diversities 
between thrones and authorities, the mighti- 
ness of the asons, and the pre-eminence of 
the cherubim and seraphim, the sublimity 
of the Spirit, the kingdom of the Lord, and 
above all the incomparable majesty of Al- 
mighty God — though I am acquainted with 
these things, yet am I not therefore by any 
means perfect, nor am I such a disciple as 
Paul or Peter." 2 This passage is interest- 
ing, as indicating that the organisation of 
the celestial hierarchies was one of the sub- 
jects in which instruction was given in the 
Mysteries. Again he speaks of the High 

l Ibid. i ch. xii. 2 Ibid., to the Trallians, ch. v. 
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Esoteric Christianity 



Priest, the Hierophant, " to whom the holy 
of holies has been committed, and who alone 
has been entrusted with the secrets of God. 55 1 

We come next to S. Clement of Alexan- 
dria and his pupil Origen, the two writers 
of the second and third centuries who tell 
us most about the Mysteries in the Early 
Church ; though the general atmosphere is 
full of mystic allusions, these two are clear 
and categorical in their statements that the 
Mysteries were a recognised institution. 

Now S. Clement was a disciple of PantaB- 
nus, and he speaks of him and of two 
others, said to be probably Tatian and The- 
odotus, as " preserving the tradition of the 
blessed doctrine derived directly from the 
holy Apostles, Peter, James, John, and 
Paul," 2 his link with the Apostles them- 
selves consisting thus of only one intermedi- 
ary. He was the head of the Catechetical 
School of Alexandria in a.d. 189, and died 
about a.d. 220. Origen, born about a,d. 
185, was his pupil, and he is, perhaps, the 
most learned of the Fathers, and a man 

1 Ibid., to the PMladelphians, ch. ix. 
9 Vol, IY. Clement of Alexandria. Sir omenta, bk. I. ch. i. 
72 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



of the rarest moral beaut} 7 . These are the 
witnesses from whom we receive the most 
important testimony as to the existence of 
definite Mysteries in the Early Church. 

The Stromata, or Miscellanies, of S. 
Clement are our source of information 
about the Mysteries in his time. He him- 
self speaks of these writings as a " miscel- 
lany of Gnostic notes, according to the true 
philosophy," 1 and also describes them as 
memoranda of the teachings he had himself 
received from PantaBnus. The passage is 
instructive: " The Lord . . . allowed us to 
communicate of those divine Mysteries, and 
of that holy light, to those who are able to 
receive them. He did not certainly disclose 
to the many what did not belong to the 
many ; but to the few to whom He knew 
that they belonged, who were capable of 
receiving and being moulded according to 
them. But secret things are entrusted to 
speech, not to writing, as is the case with 
God. And if one say 2 that it is written, 

1 Vol. IV. Stromata, bk. I. ch. xxviii. 

2 It appears that even in those days there were some who 
objected to any truth being taught secretly! 

73 



Esoteric Christianity 



' There is nothing secret which shall not be 
revealed, nor hidden which shall not be dis- 
closed,' let him also hear from us, that to 
him who hears secretly, even what is secret 
shall be manifested. This is what was pre- 
dicted by this oracle. And to him who is 
able secretly to observe what is delivered to 
him, that which is veiled shall be disclosed 
as truth; and what is hidden to the many 
shall appear manifest to the few. . . . The 
Mysteries are delivered mystically, that 
what is spoken may be in the mouth of the 
speaker ; rather not in his voice, but in his 
understanding. . . . The writing of these 
memoranda of mine, I well know, is weak 
when compared with that spirit, full of 
grace, which I was privileged to hear. But 
it will be an image to recall the archetype 
to him who was struck with the Thyrsus." 
The Thyrsus, we may here interject, was 
the wand borne by Initiates, and candidates 
were touched with it during the ceremony 
of Initiation. It had a mystic significance, 
symbolising the spinal cord and the pineal 
gland in the Lesser Mysteries, and a Rod, 
known to Occultists, in the Greater. To 
. 74 



Hidden Side of Christianity 

say, therefore, "to him who was struck 
with the Thyrsus" was exactly the same 
as to say, "to him who was initiated in the 
Mysteries." Clement proceeds: "We pro- 
fess not to explain secret things sufficiently 
— far from it — but only to recall them to 
memory, whether we have forgot aught, or 
whether for the purpose of not forgetting. 
Many things, I well know, have escaped us, 
through length of time, that have dropped 
away unwritten. . . . There are then 
some things of which we have no recollec- 
tion ; for the power that was in the blessed 
men was great." A frequent experience of 
those taught by the Great Ones, for Their 
presence stimulates and renders active 
powers which are normally latent, and 
which the pupil, unassisted, cannot evoke. 
"There are also some things which re- 
mained unnoted long, which have now es- 
caped; and others which are effaced, hav- 
ing faded away in the mind itself, since 
such a task is not easy to those not experi- 
enced ; these I revive in my commentaries. 
Some things I purposely omit, in the exer- 
cise of a wise selection, afraid to write what 

75 



Esoteric Christianity 



X guarded against speaking; not grudging 
—for that were wrong — but fearing for my 
readers, lest they should stumble by taking 
them in a wrong sense; and, as the proverb 
says, we should be found ' reaching a sword 
to a child.' For it is impossible that what 
has been written should not escape [become 
known], although remaining unpublished 
by me. But being always revolved, using 
the one only voice, that of writing, they an- 
swer nothing to him that makes enquiries 
beyond what is written; for they require 
of necessity the aid of some one, either of 
him who wrote, or of some one else who 
has walked in his footsteps. Some things 
my treatise will hint; on some it will 
linger; some it will merely mention. It 
will try to speak imperceptibly, to exhibit 
secretly, and to demonstrate silently." 1 

This passage, if it stood alone, would 
suffice to establish the existence of a secret 
teaching in the Early Church. But it 
stands by no means alone. In Chapter xii. 
of this same Book I., headed, "The Myste- 
ries of the Faith not to be divulged to 



^IMd., bk. L, ch. i. 
76 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



all,' 5 Clement declares that, since others than 
the wise may see his work, "it is requisite, 
therefore, to hide in a Mystery the wisdom 
spoken, which the Son of God taught." 
Purified tongue of the speaker, purified ears 
of the hearer, these were necessary. "Such 
were the impediments in the way of my 
writing. And even now I fear, as it is 
said, ' to cast the pearls before swine, lest 
they tread them under foot and turn and 
rend us.' For it is difficult to exhibit the 
really pure and transparent words respect- 
ing the true light, to swinish and untrained 
hearers. For scarcely could anything 
which they could hear be more ludicrous 
than these to the multitude; nor any sub- 
jects on the other hand more admirable or 
more inspiring to those of noble nature. 
But the wise do not utter with their mouth 
what they reason in council. 6 But what ye 
hear in the ear,' said the Lord, ' proclaim 
upon the houses ' ; bidding them receive the 
secret traditions of the true knowledge, and 
expound them aloft and conspicuously; and 
as we have heard in the ear, so to deliver 
them to whom it is requisite; but not en- 

77 



Esoteric Christianity 



joining us to communicate to all without 
distinction, what is said to them in para- 
bles. But there is only a delineation in the 
memoranda, which have the truth sown 
sparse and broadcast, that it may escape 
the notice of those who pick up seeds like 
jackdaws; but when they find a good hus- 
bandman, each one of them will germinate 
and will produce corn." 

Clement might have added that to " pro- 
claim upon the houses " was to proclaim or 
expound in the assembly of the Perfect, the 
Initiated, and by no means to shout aloud 
to the man in the street. 

Again he says that those who are " still 
blind and dumb, not having understanding, 
or the undazzled and keen vision of the 
contemplative soul . . . must stand outside 
of the divine choir. . . . Wherefore, in ac- 
cordance with the method of concealment, 
the truly sacred Word, truly divine and 
most necessary for us, deposited in the 
shrine of truth, was by the Egyptians in- 
dicated by what were called among them 
adyta, and by the Hebrews by the veil. 
Only the consecrated . . . were allowed 

78 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



access to them. For Plato also thought it 
not lawful for ' the impure to touch the 
pure.' Thence the prophecies and oracles 
are spoken in enigmas, and the Mysteries 
are not exhibited incontinently to all and 
sundry, but only after certain purifications 
and previous instructions." 1 He then de- 
scants at great length on Symbols, expound- 
ing Pythagorean, Hebrew, Egyptian, 2 and 
then remarks that the ignorant and un- 
learned man fails in understanding them. 
"But the Gnostic apprehends. Now then it 
is not wished that all things should be 
exposed indiscriminately to all and sundry, 
or the benefits of wisdom communicated to 
those who have not even in a dream been 
purified in soul (for it is not allowed to hand 
to every chance comer what has been pro- 
cured with such laborious efforts) ; nor are 
the Mysteries of the Word to be expounded 
to the profane." The Pythagoreans and 
Plato, Zeno, and Aristotle had exoteric and 
esoteric teachings. The philosophers estab- 
lished the Mysteries, for "was it not more 
beneficial for the holy and blessed contem- 

l Ibid. } bk. V., ch. iv. 2 Ibid., ch. v.-viii. 

79 



Esoteric Christianity 



plation of realities to be concealed? " 1 The 
Apostles also approved of "veiling the Mys- 
teries of the Faith," "for there is an in- 
struction to the perfect," alluded to in Co- 
lossians i. 9-11 and 25-27. "So that, on 
the one hand, then, there are the Mysteries 
which were hid till the time of the Apos- 
tles, and were delivered by them as they 
received from the Lord, and, concealed in 
the Old Testament, were manifested to the 
saints. And, on the other hand, there is 
6 the riches of the glory of the mystery in 
the Gentiles,' which is faith and hope in 
Christ ; which in another place he has called 
the ' foundation. ' " He quotes S. Paul to 
show that this "knowledge belongs not to 
all," and says, referring to Heb. v. and vi., 
that "there were certainly among the He- 
brews, some things delivered unwritten;" 
and then refers to S. Barnabas, who speaks 
of God, "who has put into our hearts wis- 
dom and the understanding of His secrets," 
and says that "it is but for few to compre- 
hend these things," as showing a "trace of 
Gnostic tradition." "Wherefore instruc- 



1 Ibid. , ch. ix. 
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Hidden Side of Christianity 



tion, which reveals hidden things, is called 
illumination, as it is the teacher only who 
uncovers the lid of the ark." 1 Further re- 
ferring to S. Paul, he comments on his re- 
mark to the Romans that he will "come in 
the fulness of the blessing of Christ," 2 and 
says that he thus designates "the spiritual 
gift and the Gnostic interpretation, while 
being present he desires to impart to them 
present as ' the fulness of Christ, according 
to the revelation of the Mystery sealed in 
the ages of eternity, but now manifested by 
the prophetic Scriptures. ' 3 . . . But only to 
a few of them is shown what those things 
are which are contained in the Mystery. 
Rightly, then, Plato, in the epistles, treat- 
ing of God, says : ' We must speak in enig- 
mas; that should the tablet come by any 
mischance on its leaves either by sea or land, 
he who reads may remain ignorant.' " 4 

After much examination of Greek writers, 
and an investigation into philosophy, S. Cle- 

l Ibid., bk. V., ch. x. 2 Loc. Cit., xv. 29. 

3 Ibid., xvi. 25, 26; the version quoted differs in words, 
but not in meaning, from the English Authorised Version. 
*8tromata, bk. V., ch. x. 

6 81 



Esoteric Christianity 



ment declares that the Gnosis " imparted 
and revealed by the Son of God, is wisdom. 
. . . And the Gnosis itself is that which has 
descended by transmission to a few, having 
been imparted unwritten by the Apostles." 1 
A very long exposition of the life of the 
Gnostic, the Initiate, is given, and S. Cle- 
ment concludes it by saying: "Let the 
specimen suffice to those who have ears. 
For it is not required to unfold the mystery, 
but only to indicate what is sufficient for 
those who are partakers in knowledge to 
bring it to mind." 2 

Eegarding Scripture as consisting of alle- 
gories and symbols, and as hiding the sense 
in order to stimulate enquiry and to preserve 
the ignorant from danger, 3 S. Clement 
naturally confined the higher instruction to 
the learned. "Our Gnostic will be deeply 
learned," 4 he says. "Now the Gnostic 
must be erudite." 5 Those who had acquired 
readiness by previous training could master 
the deeper knowledge, for though "a man 

l Ibid., bk. VI., ch. vii. 2 Ibid., bk. VII. , ch. xiv. 
*Ibid., bk, VI., ch. xv. 4 IMd., bk. VI., ch. x. 
5 Ibid., bk. VI., ch. vii. 
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Hidden Side of Christianity 



can be a believer without learning, so also* 
we assert that it is impossible for a man 
without learning to comprehend the things 
which are declared in the faith." 1 "Some 
who think themselves naturally gifted, do 
not wish to touch either philosophy or logic; 
nay more, they do not wish to learn natural 
science. They demand bare faith alone. 
... So also I call him truly learned who 
brings everything to bear on the truth — so 
that, from geometry, and music, and gram- 
mar, and philosophy itself, culling what is 
useful, he guards the faith against assault. 
. . . How necessary is it for him who de- 
sires to be partaker of the power of God, 
to treat of intellectual subjects by philoso- 
phising.' 52 The Gnostic avails himself of 
branches of learning as auxiliary preparatory 
exercises." 3 So far was S. Clement from 
thinking that the teaching of Christianity 
should be measured by the ignorance of the 
unlearned. "He who is conversant with all 
kinds of wisdom will be pre-eminently a 
Gnostic." 4 Thus while he welcomed the 

1 Ibid., bk. I., ch. vi. 2 Ibid., ch. ix. 

3 Ibid., bk. VI., ch. x. 4 Ibid., bk. I., ch. xiii. 
83 



Esoteric Christianity 



ignorant and the sinner, and found in the 
Gospel what was suited to their needs, he 
considered that only the learned and the 
pure were fit candidates for the Mysteries. 
" The Apostle, in contradistinction to Gnos- 
tic perfection, calls the common faith the 
foundation, and sometime milk" 1 but on 
that foundation the edifice of the Gnosis was 
to be raised, and the food of men was to suc- 
ceed that of babes. There is nothing of 
harshness nor of contempt in the distinction 
he draws, but only a calm and wise recogni- 
tion of the facts. 

Even the well-prepared candidate, the 
learned and trained pupil, could only hope 
to advance step by step in the profound 
truths unveiled in the Mysteries. This ap- 
pears clearly in his comments on the vision 
of Hermas, in which he also throws out 
some hints on methods of reading occult 
works. "Did not the Power also, that ap- 
peared to Hermas in the Vision, in the form 
of the Church, give for transcription the 
book which she wished to be made known 
to the elect? And this, he says, he trans- 

1 Vol. XII. Stromata, bk. V., ch. iv. 
84 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



cribed to the letter, without finding how to 
complete the syllables. And this signified 
that the Scripture is clear to all, when taken 
according to base reading; and that this is 
the faith which occupies the place of the 
rudiments. Wherefore also the figurative 
expression is employed, ' reading according 
to the letter, ' while we understand that the 
gnostic unfolding of Scriptures, when faith 
had already reached an advanced state, is 
likened to reading according to the sylla- 
bles. . . . Now that the Saviour has taught 
the Apostles, the unwritten rendering of the 
written (scriptures) has been handed down 
also to us, inscribed by the power of God on 
hearts new, according to the renovation of 
the book. Thus those of highest repute 
among the Greeks dedicate the fruit of the 
pomegranate to Hermes, who they say is 
speech, on account of its interpretation. For 
speech conceals much. . . . That it is there- 
fore not only to those who read simply that 
the acquisition of the truth is so difficult, 
but that not even to those whose preroga- 
tive the knowledge of the truth is, is the 
contemplation of it vouchsafed all at once, 

85 



Esoteric Christianity 



the history of Moses teaches; until accus- 
tomed to gaze, as the Hebrews on the glory 
of Moses, and the prophets of Israel on the 
visions of angels, so we also become able to 
look the splendours of truth in the face.' 51 

Yet more references might be given, but 
these should suffice to establish the fact that 
S. Clement knew of, had been initiated into, 
and wrote for the benefit of those who had 
also been initiated into, the Mysteries in the 
Church. 

The next witness is his pupil Origen, that 
most shining light of learning, courage, 
sanctity, devotion, meekness, and zeal, 
whose works remain as mines of gold 
wherein the student may dig for the treas- 
ures of wisdom. 

In his famous controversy with Celsus at- 
tacks were made on Christianity which drew 
out a defence of the Christian position in 
which frequent references were made to the 
secret teachings. 2 

1 Ibid., bk. VI, ch. xv. 

2 Book I. of Against Celsus is found in Vol. X. of the 
Ante-Nicene Library. The remaining books are in Vol. 
XXIII. 

86 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



Celsus had alleged, as a matter of attack, 
that Christianity was a secret system, and 
Origen traverses this by saying that while 
certain doctrines were secret, many others 
were public, and that this system of ex- 
oteric and esoteric teachings, adopted in 
Christianity, was also in general use among 
philosophers. The reader should note, in 
the following passage, the distinction drawn 
between the resurrection of Jesus, regarded 
in a historical light, and the " mystery of 
the resurrection." 

" Moreover, since he [Celsus] frequently 
calls the Christian doctrine a secret system 
[of belief], we must confute him on this 
point also, since almost the entire world 
is better acquainted with what Christians 
preach than with the favourite opinions of 
philosophers. For who is ignorant of the 
statement that Jesus was born of a virgin, 
and that He was crucified, and that His 
resurrection is an article of faith among 
many, and that a general judgment is an- 
nounced to come, in which the wicked are 
to be punished according to their deserts, 
and the righteous to be duly rewarded? 

87 



Esoteric Christianity 



And yet the Mystery of the resurrection, 
not being understood, is made a subject of 
ridicule among unbelievers. In these cir- 
cumstances, to speak of the Christian doc- 
trine as a secret system, is altogether 
absurd. But that there should be certaiil 
doctrines, not made known to the multitude, 
which are [revealed] after the exoteric ones 
have been taught, is not a peculiarity of 
Christianity alone, but also of philosophic 
systems, in which certain truths are ex- 
oteric and others esoteric. Some of the 
hearers of Pythagoras were content with 
his ipse dixit ; while others were taught 
in secret those doctrines which were not 
deemed fit to be communicated to profane 
and insufficiently prepared ears. Moreover, 
all the Mysteries that are celebrated every- 
where throughout Greece and barbarous 
countries, although held in secret, have no 
discredit thrown upon them, so that it is in 
vain he endeavours to calumniate the secret 
doctrines of Christianity, seeing that he 
does not correctly understand its nature." 1 
It is impossible to deny that, in this im- 

^ol. X. Orig en against Celsics, bk. I., ch. vii. 
88 



! 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



portant passage, Origen distinctly places the 
Christian Mysteries in the same category as 
those of the Pagan world, and claims that 
what is not regarded as a discredit to other 
religions should not form a subject of attack 
when found in Christianity. 

Still writing against Celsus, he declares 
that the secret teachings of Jesus were pre- 
served in the Church, and refers specifically 
to the explanations that He gave to His dis- 
ciples of His parables, in answering Celsus' 
comparison of "the inner Mysteries of the 
Church of God " with the Egyptian worship 
of animals. "I have not yet spoken of the 
observance of all that is written in the Gos- 
pels, each one of which contains much doc- 
trine difficult to be understood, not merely 
by the multitude, but even by certain of the 
more intelligent, including a very profound 
explanation of the parables which Jesus de- 
livered to ' those without ' while reserving 
the exhibition of their full meaning for 
those who had passed beyond the stage of 
exoteric teaching, and who came to Him 
privately in the house. And when he comes 
to understand it, he will admire the reason 

89 



Esoteric Christianity 



why some are said to be ' without, ' and 
others 6 in the house. ' " 1 

And he refers guardedly to the " moun- 
tain " which Jesus ascended, from which he 
came down again to help " those who were 
unable to follow Him whither His disciples 
went." 1 The allusion is to "the Mountain 
of Initiation," a well-known mystical 
phrase, as Moses also made the Tabernacle 
after the pattern "showed thee in the 
mount." 2 Origen refers to it again later, 
saying that Jesus showed himself to be very 
different in his real appearance when on the 
"Mountain," from what those saw who 
could not "follow Him on high." 3 

So also, in his commentary on the Gospel 
of Matthew, Chap, xv., dealing with the 
episode of the Syro-Phoenician woman, Ori- 
gen remarks: "And perhaps, also, of the 
words of Jesus there are some loaves which 
it is possible to give to the more rational, 
as to children, only; and others as it were 
crumbs from the great house and table of the 

1 Ibid. 2 Ex. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30, and compare with 

Heb. viii. 5, and ix. 23. 3 Origen against Celsus, bk. 

IV., ch. xvi. 

90 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



well-born, which may be used by some souls 
like dogs." 

Celsus complaining that sinners were 
brought into the Church, Origen answers 
that the Church had medicine for those that 
were sick, but also the study and the know- 
ledge of divine things for those who were 
in health. Sinners were taught not to sin, 
and only when it was seen that progress had 
been made, and men were " purified by the 
Word," "then and not before do we invite 
them to participation in our Mysteries. For 
we speak wisdom among them that are per- 
fect." 1 Sinners came to be healed: "For 
there are in the divinity of the Word some 
helps towards the cure of those who are 
sick. . . . Others, again, which to the pure 
in soul and body exhibit the ' revelation of 
the Mystery, which was kept secret since 
the world began, but now is made manifest 
by the Scriptures of the prophets, ' and 6 by 
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,' 
which ' appearing ' is manifested to each 
one of those who' are perfect, and which en- 
lightens the reason in the true knowledge 



1 Ibid., bk. III., ch. lix. 
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Esoteric Christianity 



of things." 1 Such appearances of divine 
Beings took place, we have seen, in the Pa- 
gan Mysteries, and those of the Church 
had equally glorious visitants. "God the 
Word," he saj's, "was sent as a physician 
to sinners, but as a Teacher of Divine Mys- 
teries to those who are already pure, and 
who sin no more." 2 "Wisdom will not en- 
ter into the soul of a base man, nor dwell in 
a body that is involved in sin "; hence these 
higher teachings are given only to those who 
are "athletes in piety and in every virtue." 

Christians did not admit the impure to 
this knowledge, but said: "Whoever has 
clean hands, and, therefore, lifts up holy 
hands to God ... let him come to us . . . 
Whoever is pure not only from all defile- 
ment, but from what are regarded as lesser 
transgressions, let him be boldly initiated in 
the Mysteries of Jesus, which properly are 
made known only to the holy and the pure." 
Hence also, ere the ceremony of Initiation 
began, he who acts as Initiator, according 
to the precepts of Jesus, the Hierophant, 
made the significant proclamation "to those 

1 Ibid., ch. lxi. 2 Ibid. , ch. lxii. 

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Hidden Side of Christianity 



who have been purified in heart : He, whose 
soul has, for a long time, been conscious of 
no evil, especially since he yielded himself 
to the healing of the Word, let such a one 
hear the doctrines which were spoken in 
private by Jesus to His genuine disciples." 
This was the opening of the " initiating 
those who were already purified into the 
sacred Mysteries." 1 Such only might learn 
the realities of the unseen worlds, and might 
enter into the sacred precincts where, as of 
old, angels were the teachers, and where 
knowledge was given by sight and not only 
by words. It is impossible not to be struck 
with the different tone of these Christians 
from that of their modern successors. 
With them perfect purity of life, the prac- 
tice of virtue, the fulfilling of the divine 
Law in every detail of outer conduct, the 
perfection of righteousness, were — as with 
the Pagans — only the beginning of the way 
instead of the end. Nowadays religion is 
considered to have gloriously accomplished 
its object when it has made the Saint; then, 
it was to the Saints that it devoted its high- 



1 IMd., ch. lx. 
93 



Esoteric Christianity 



est energies, and, taking the pure in heart, 
it led them to the Beatific Vision. 

The same fact of secret teaching comes 
out again, when Origen is discussing the 
arguments of Celsus as to the wisdom of re- 
taining ancestral customs, based on the be- 
lief that "the various quarters of the earth 
were from the beginning allotted to differ- 
ent superintending Spirits, and were thus 
distributed among certain governing Pow- 
ers, and in this way the administration of 
the world is carried on." 1 

Origen having animadverted on the de- 
ductions of Celsus, proceeds: "But as we 
think it likely that some of those who are 
accustomed to deeper investigation will fall 
in with this treatise, let us venture to lay 
down some considerations of a profounder 
kind, conveying a mystical and secret view 
respecting the original distribution of the 
various quarters of the earth among differ- 
ent superintending Spirits." 2 He says that 
Celsus has misunderstood the deeper reasons 
relating to the arrangement of terrestrial 

1 Vol. XXIII. Origen against Celsus, bk. V., ch. xxv. 
*Ibid., ch. xxviii. 

94; 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



affairs, some of which are even touched 
upon in Grecian history. Then he quotes 
Dent, xxxii. 8-9: " When the Most High 
divided the nations, when he dispersed the 
sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peo- 
ple according to the number of the Angels 
of God; and the Lord's portion was his peo- 
ple Jacob, and Israel the cord of his inheri- 
tance." This is the wording of the Septua- 
gint, not that of the English authorised 
version, but it is very suggestive of the 
title the "Lord" being regarded as that of 
the Kuling Angel of the Jews only, and 
not of the "Most High," i.e. God. This 
view has disappeared, from ignorance, and 
hence the impropriety of many of the state- 
ments referring to the "Lord," when they 
are transferred to the "Most High," e.g. 
Judges i. 19. 

Origen then relates the history of the 
Tower of Babel, and continues: "But on 
these subjects much, and that of a mystical 
kind, might be said ; in keeping with which 
is the following : ' It is good to keep close 
the secret of a king,' Tobit xii. 7, in order 
that the doctrine of the entrance of souls 

95 



Esoteric Christianity 



into bodies (not, however, that of the trans- 
migration from one body into another) may 
not be thrown before the common under- 
standing, nor what is holy given to the dogs, 
nor pearls be cast before swine. For such a 
procedure would be impious, being equiva- 
lent to a betrayal of the mysterious decla- 
rations of God's wisdom It is suffi- 
cient, however, to represent in the style of a 
historic narrative what is intended to con- 
vey a secret meaning in the garb of history, 
that those who have the capacity may work 
out for themselves all that relates to the 
subject." 1 He then expounds more fully 
the Tower of Babel story, and writes: 
" Now, in the next place, if any one has the 
capacity let him understand that in what 
assumes the form of history, and which con- 
tains some things that are literally true, 
while yet it conveys a deeper mean- 
ing . . . 2 

After endeavouring to show that the 
"Lord" was more powerful than the other 
superintending Spirits of the different quar- 
ters of the earth, and that he sent his people 



1 Ibid., ch. xxix. 2 Ibid., cli. xxxi. 

96 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



forth to be punished by living under the do- 
minion of the other powers, and afterwards 
reclaimed them with all of the less favoured 
nations who could be drawn in, Origen con- 
cludes by saying: "As we have previously 
observed, these remarks are to be under- 
stood as being made by us with a concealed 
meaning, by way of pointing out the mis- 
takes of those who assert . . . .' 51 as did 
Celsus. 

After remarking that "the object of 
Christianity is that we should become 
wise," 2 Origen proceeds: "If you come to 
the books written after the time of Jesus, 
you will find that those multitudes of be- 
lievers who hear the parables are, as it 
were, 6 without, ' and worthy only of ex- 
oteric doctrines, while the disciples learn 
in private the explanation of the parables. 
For, privately, to His own disciples did Je- 
sus open up all things, esteeming above the 
multitudes those who desired to know His 
wisdom. And He promises to those who 
believe on Him to send them wise men and 
scribes. . . . And Paul also in the catalogue 



1 Ibid., ch. xxxii. 
7 97 



2 Ibid., ch. xlv. 



Esoteric Christianity 



of ' Charismata ' bestowed by God, placed 
first ' the Word of wisdom, ' and second, as 
being inferior to it, ' the word of know- 
ledge,' but third, and lower down, 6 faith. 5 
And because he regarded 6 the Word ' as 
higher than miraculous powers, he for that 
reason places ' workings of miracles ' and 
' gifts of healings ' in a lower place than 
gifts of the Word." 1 

The Gospel truly helped the ignorant, 
"but it is no hindrance to the knowledge of 
God, but an assistance, to have been edu- 
cated, and to have studied the best opinions, 
and to be wise." 2 As for the unintelligent, 
"I endeavour to improve such also to the 
best of my ability, although I would not 
desire to build up the Christian community 
out of such materials. For I seek in pref- 
erence those who are more clever and acute, 
because they are able to comprehend the 
meaning of the hard sayings." 3 Here we 
have plainly stated the ancient Christian 
idea, entirely at one with the considerations 
submitted in Chapter I. of this book. 

1 Ibid,, ch. xlvi. 2 Ibid., chs. xlvii-liv. 

*Ibid., ch. lxxiv. 
98 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



There is room for the ignorant in Christian- 
ity, but it is not intended only for them, and 
has deep teachings for the "clever and 
acute." 

It is for these that he takes much pains 
to show that the Jewish and Christian Scrip- 
tures have hidden meanings, veiled under 
stories the outer meaning of which repels 
them as absurd, alluding to the serpent and 
the tree of life, and "the other statements 
which follow, which might of themselves 
lead a candid reader to see that all these 
things had, not inappropriately, an allegoi- 
ical meaning." 1 Many chapters are devoted 
to these allegorical and mystical meanings, 
hidden beneath the words of the Old and 
New Testaments, and he alleges that Moses, 
like the Egyptians, gave histories with con- 
cealed meanings. 2 "He who deals candidly 
with histories" — this is Origen's general 
canon of interpretation — "and would wish 
to keep himself also from being imposed on 
by them, will exercise his judgment as to 
what statements he will give his assent to, 

1 Ibid., bk. IV., ch. xxxix. 

2 Vol. X. Orig en against Celsus, bk. I., ch. xvii. and others. 

99 



Esoteric Christianity 



and what he will accept figuratively, seek- 
ing to discover the meaning of the authors 
of such inventions, and from what state- 
ments he will withhold his beliefs, as having 
been written for the gratification of certain 
individuals. And we have said this by way 
of anticipation respecting the whole history 
related in the Gospels concerning Jesus.' 51 
A great part of his Fourth Book is taken up 
with illustrations of the, mystical explana- 
tions of the Scripture stories, and anyone 
who wishes to pursue the subject can read 
through it. 

In the De Principiis, Origen gives it as 
the received teaching of the Church "that 
the Scriptures were written by the Spirit of 
God, and have a meaning, not only such 
as is apparent at first sight, but also an- 
other, which escapes the notice of most. 
For those [words] which are written are the 
forms of certain Mysteries, and the images 
of divine things t Eespecting which there 
is one opinion throughout the whole 
Church, that the whole law is indeed spirit- 
ual ; but that the spiritual meaning which 

1 Ibid. , ch. xlii. 
100 



Hidden Side of Christianity 

J 



the law conveys is not known to all, but to 
those only on whom the grace of the Holy 
Spirit is bestowed in the word of wisdom 
and knowledge." 1 Those who remember 
what has already been quoted will see in the 
« Word of wisdom " and " the word of know- 
ledge " the two typical mystical instructions, 
the spiritual and the intellectual. 

In the Fourth Book of Be Principiis, 
Origen explains at length his views on 
the interpretation of Scripture. It has a 
"body," which is the "common and histori- 
cal sense"; a "soul," a figurative meaning 
to be discovered by the exercise of the intel- 
lect; and a "spirit," an inner and divine 
sense, to be known only by those who have 
"the mind of Christ." He considers that 
incongruous and impossible things are intro- 
duced into the history to arouse an intelli- 
gent reader, and compel him to search for 
a deeper explanation, while simple people 
would read on without appreciating the dif- 
ficulties. 2 

Cardinal Newman, in his Avians of the 
Fourth Century, has some interesting re- 

1 Vol. X. De Principiis, Preface, p. 8. 2 Ibid., ch. i. 
101 



Esoteric Christianity 



marks on the Disciplina Arcani, but, with 
the deeply-rooted ingrained scepticism of the 
nineteenth century, he cannot believe to the 
full in the "riches of the glory of the Mys- 
tery," or probably never for a moment 
conceived the possibility of the existence of 
such splendid realities. Yet he was a be- 
liever in Jesus, and the words of the promise 
of Jesus were clear and definite: "I will not 
leave you comfortless; I will come to you. 
Yet a little while, and the world seeth me 
no more ; but ye see me : because I live, ye 
shall live also. At that day ye shall know 
that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and 
I in you." 1 The promise was amply re- 
deemed, for He came to them and taught 
them in His Mysteries; therein they saw 
Him, though the world saw Him no more, 
and they knew the Christ as in them, and 
their life as Christ's. 

Cardinal Newman recognises a secret tra- 
dition, handed down from the Apostles, but 
he considers that it consisted of Christian 
doctrines, later divulged, forgetting that 
those who were told that they were not yet 

1 S. John xiv. 18-20. 
102 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



fit to receive it were not heathen, nor even 
catechumens under instruction, but full 
communicating members of the Christian 
Church. Thus he states that this secret 
tradition was later "authoritatively divul- 
ged and perpetuated in the form of sym- 
bols," and was embodied " in the creeds of 
the early Councils." 1 But as the doctrines 
in the creeds are to be found clearly stated 
in the Gospels and Epistles, this position 
is wholly untenable, all these having been 
already divulged to the world at large ; and 
in all of them the members of the Church 
were certainly thoroughly instructed. The 
repeated statements as to secrecy become 
meaningless if thus explained. The Cardi- 
nal, however, says that whatever "has 
not been thus authenticated, whether it 
was prophetical information or comment on 
the past dispensations, is, from the circum- 
stances of the case, lost to the Church." 2 
That is very probably, in fact certainly, 
true, so far as the Church is concerned, but 
it is none the less recoverable. 



1 Loc. cit., ch. i., sec. III., p. 55. 
'Ibid., ch. I, sec. III., pp. 55, 56. 
103 



Esoteric Christianity 



Commenting on Xrenseus, who in his work 
Against Heresies lays much stress on the 
existence of an Apostolic Tradition in the 
Church, the Cardinal writes: "He then 
proceeds to speak of the clearness and co- 
gency of the traditions preserved in the 
Church, as containing that true wisdom of 
the perfect, of which S. Paul speaks, and to 
which the Gnostics pretended. And, in- 
deed, without formal proofs of the existence 
and the authority in primitive times of an 
Apostolic Tradition, it is plain that there 
must have been such a tradition, granting 
that the Apostles conversed, and their 
friends had memories, like other men. It is 
quite inconceivable that they should not 
have been led to arrange the series of re- 
vealed doctrines more systematically than 
they record them in Scripture, as soon as 
their converts became exposed to the attacks 
and misrepresentations of heretics; unless 
they were forbidden to do so, a supposition 
which cannot be maintained. Their state- 
ments thus occasioned would be preserved 
as a matter of course ; together with those 

other secret but less important truths, to 

104 



Hidden Side c/ Christianity 



which S. Paul seems to allude, and which the 
early writers more or less acknowledge, 
whether concerning the types of the Jewish 
Church, or the prospective fortunes of the 
Christian. And such recollections of apos- 
tolical teaching would evidently be binding 
on the faith of those who were instructed 
in them ; unless it can be supposed that, 
though coming from inspired teachers, they 
were not of divine origin." 1 In a part of 
the section dealing with the allegorising 
method, he writes in reference to the sac- 
rifice of Isaac, &c, as " typical of the New 
Testament revelation": "In corroboration 
of this remark, let it be observed, that there 
seems to have been 2 in the Church a tradi- 
tionary explanation of these historical types, 
derived from the Apostles, but kept among 
the secret doctrines, as being dangerous to 
the majority of hearers; and certainly S. 
Paul, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, affords 
us an instance of such a tradition, both as 

1 Ibid., pp. 54, 55. 

2 " Seems to have been " is a somewhat weak expression, 
after what is said by Clement and Origen, of which some 
specimens are given in the text. 

105 



Esoteric Christianity 



existing and as secret (even though it be 
shown to be of Jewish origin), when, first 
checking himself and questioning his breth- 
ren's faith, he communicates, not without 
hesitation, the evangelical scope of the ac- 
count of Melchisedec, as introduced into the 
book of Genesis.' 51 

The social and political convulsions that 
accompanied its dying now began to torture 
the vast frame of the Roman Empire, and 
even the Christians were caught up in the 
whirlpool of selfish warring interests. We 
still find scattered references to special 
knowledge imparted to the leaders and 
teachers of the Church, knowledge of the 
heavenly hierarchies, instructions given by 
angels, and so on. But the lack of suit- 
able pupils caused the Mysteries to be with- 
drawn as an institution publicly known to 
exist, and teaching was given more and 
more secretly to those rarer and rarer souls, 
who by learning, purity, and devotion 
showed themselves capable of receiving it. 
No longer were schools to be found wherein 
the preliminary teachings were given, and 

l IMd„ p. 62. 
106 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



with the disappearance of these the "door 
was shut." 

Two streams maj r nevertheless be tracked 
through Christendom, streams which had as 
their source the vanished Mysteries. One 
was the stream of mystic learning, flowing 
from the Wisdom, the Gnosis, imparted in 
the Mysteries ; the other was the stream of 
mystic contemplation, equally part of the 
Gnosis, leading to the exstasy, to spiritual 
vision. This latter, however, divorced from 
knowledge, rarely attained the true exstasis, 
and tended either to run riot in the lower 
regions of the invisible worlds, or to lose 
itself amid a variegated crowd of subtle 
superphysical forms, visible as objective ap- 
pearances to the inner vision — prematurely 
forced by fastings, vigils, and strained 
attention — -but mostly born of the thoughts 
and emotions of the seer. Even when the 
forms observed were not externalised 
thoughts, they were seen through a distort- 
ing atmosphere of preconceived ideas and 
beliefs, and were thus rendered largely un- 
reliable. None the less, some of the visions 
were verily of heavenly things, and Jesus 
107 



Esoteric Christianity 



truly appeared from time to time to His 
devoted lovers, and angels would sometimes 
brighten with their presence the cell of 
monk and nun, the solitude of rapt devotee 
and patient seeker after God. To deny the 
possibility of such experiences would be to 
strike at the very root of that " which has 
been most surely believed " in all religions, 
and is known to all Occultists — the inter- 
communication between Spirits veiled in 
flesh and those clad in subtler vestures, the 
touching of mind with mind across the bar- 
riers of matter, the unfolding of the Divinity 
in man, the sure knowledge of a life beyond 
the gates of death. 

Glancing down the centuries we find no 
time in which Christendom was left wholly 
devoid of mysteries. "It was probably 
about the end of the 5th century, just as 
ancient philosophy was dying out in the 
Schools of Athens, that the speculative 
philosophy of neo-Platonism made a definite 
lodgment in Christian thought through the 
literary forgeries of the Pseudo-Dionysius. 
The doctrines of Christianity were by that 
time so firmly established that the Church 

108 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



could look upon a symbolical or mystical in- 
terpretation of them without anxiety. The 
author of the Theologica Mystica and the 
other works ascribed to the Areopagite pro- 
ceeds, therefore, to develop the doctrines of 
Proclus with very little modification into a 
system of esoteric Christianity. God is the 
nameless and supra-essential One, elevated 
above goodness itself. Hence c negative the- 
ology, ' which ascends from the creature to 
God by dropping one after another every de- 
terminate predicate, leads us nearest to the 
truth. The return to God is the consumma- 
tion of all things and the goal indicated 
by Christian teaching. The same doctrines 
were preached with more of churchly fer- 
vour by Maximus the Confessor (580-622). 
Maximus represents almost the last specula- 
tive activity of the Greek Church, but the 
influence of the Pseudo-Dionysian writing 
was transmitted to the West in the ninth 
century by Erigena, in whose speculative 
spirit both the scholasticism and the mysti- 
cism of the Middle Ages have their rise. 
Erigena translated Dionysius into Latin 
along with the commentaries of Max- 
109 



Esoteric Christianity 



imus, and his system is essentially based upon 
theirs. The negative theology is adopted, 
and God is stated to be predicateless Being, 
above all categories, and therefore not im- 
properly called Nothing [query, No-Thing]. 
Out of this Nothing or incomprehensible 
essence the world of ideas or primordial 
causes is eternally created. This is the 
Word or Son of God, in whom all things 
exist, so far as they have substantial exist- 
ence. All existence is a theophany, and as 
God is the beginning of all things, so also is 
He the end. Erigena teaches the restitution 
of all things under the form of the Dionysian 
adunatio or deificatio. These are the per- 
manent outlines of what may be called the 
philosophy of mysticism in Christian times, 
and it is remarkable with how little varia- 
tion they are repeated from age to age." 1 

In the eleventh century Bernard of Clair- 
vaux (a.d. 1091-1153) and Hugo of S. 
Victor carry on the mystic tradition, with 
Eichard of S. Victor in the following 
century, and S. Bonaventura the Seraphic 
Doctor, and the great S. Thomas Aquinas 

1 Article on " Mysticism. " — Encyc. Britan. 
110 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



(a.d. 1227-1274) in the thirteenth. Thomas 
Aquinas dominates the Europe of the 
Middle Ages, by his force of character no less 
than by his learning and piety. He asserts 
" Eevelation " as one source of knowledge, 
Scripture and tradition being the two chann- 
els in which it runs, and the influence, seen 
in his writings, of the Pseudo-Dionysius 
links him to the Neo-Platonists. The second 
source is Eeason, and here the channels 
are the Platonic philosophy and the methods 
of Aristotle — the latter an alliance that did 
Christianity no good, for Aristotle became 
an obstacle to the advance of the higher 
thought, as was made manifest in the strug- 
gles of Giordano Bruno, the Pythagorean. 
Thomas Aquinas was canonised in a.d. 
1323, and the great Dominican remains as 
a type of the union of theology and philoso- 
phy — the aim of his life. These belong to 
the great Church of western Europe, vindi- 
cating her claim to be regarded as the trans- 
mitter of the holy torch of mystic learning. 
Around her there also sprang up many 
sects, deemed heretical, yet containing true 
traditions of the sacred secret learning, the 
111 



Esoteric Christianity 



Cathari and many others, persecuted by a 
Church jealous of her authority, and fear- 
ing lest the holy pearls should pass into pro- 
fane custody. In this century also S. Eliz- 
abeth of Hungary shines out with sweetness 
and purity, while Eckhart (a.d. 1260-1329) 
proves himself a worthy inheritor of the 
Alexandrian Schools. Eckhart taught that 
"The Godhead is the absolute Essence (We- 
sen), unknowable net only by man but also 
by Itself ; It is darkness and absolute inde- 
terminateness, Nicht in contrast to Icht, or 
definite and knowable existence. Yet It is 
the potentiality of all things, and Its nature 
is, in a triadic process, to come to conscious- 
ness of Itself as the triune God. Creation 
is not a temporal act, but an eternal neces- 
sity, of the divine nature. I am as neces- 
sary to God, Eckhart is fond of saying, as 
God is necessary to me. In my knowledge 
and love God knows and loves Himself." 1 

Eckhart is followed, in the fourteenth 
century, by John Tauler, and Nicolas of 
Basel, "the Friend of God in the Oberland." 
From these sprang up the Society of the 

1 Article " Mysticism. " Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
112 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



Friends of God, true mystics and followers 
of the old tradition. Mead remarks that 
Thomas Aquinas, Tauler, and Eckhart fol- 
lowed the Pseudo Dionysius, who followed 
Plotinus, lamblichus, and Proclus, who in 
turn followed Plato and Pythagoras. 1 So 
linked together are the followers of the 
Wisdom in all ages. It was probably a 
"Friend " who was the author of Die Deut- 
sche Theologie, a book of mystical devotion, 
which had the curious fortune of being 
approved by Staupitz, the Vicar-General of 
the Augustinian Order, who recommended 
it to Luther, and by Luther himself, who 
published it a.d. 1516, as a book which 
should rank immediately after the Bible 
and the writings of S. Augustine of Hippo. 
Another " Friend" was Kuysbroeck, to 
whose influence with Groot was due the 
founding of the Brethren of the Common 
Lot or Common Life — a Society that must 
remain ever memorable, as it numbered 
among its members that prince of mystics, 
Thomas a Kempis (a.d. 1380-14Y1), the au- 
thor of the immortal Imitation of Christ. 



1 Orpheus, pp. 53, 54. 
8 113 



Esoteric Christianity 



In the two following centuries the more 
purely intellectual side of mysticism comes 
out more strongly than the exstatic — so 
dominant in these societies of the fourteenth 
— and we have Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa, 
with Giordano Bruno, the martyred knight- 
errant of philosophy, and Paracelsus, the 
much slandered scientist, who drew his 
knowledge directly from the original eastern 
fountain, instead of through Greek channels. 

The sixteenth century saw the birth of 
Jacob Bohme (a.d. 1575-1624), the " in- 
spired cobbler," an Initiate in obscuration 
truly, sorely persecuted by unenlightened 
men; and then too came S. Teresa, the 
much-oppressed and suffering Spanish mys- 
tic; and S. John of the Cross, a burning 
flame of intense devotion; and S. Francois 
de Sales. Wise was Eome in canonising 
these, wiser than the Eeformation that 
persecuted Bohme, but the spirit of the 
Eeformation was ever intensely anti-mys- 
tical, and wherever its breath has passed 
the fair flowers of mysticism have withered 
as under the sirocco. 

Eome, however, who, though she canon- 
114 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



ised Teresa dead, had sorely harried her 
while living — did ill with Mme. de Guyon 
(a.d. 1648-1717), a true mystic, and with 
Miguel de Molinos (1627-1696), worthy to 
sit near S. John of the Cross, who carried 
on in the seventeenth century the high de- 
votion of the mystic, turned into a peculiarly 
passive form — the Quietist. 

In this same century arose the school of 
Platonists in Cambridge, of whom Henry 
More (a.d. 1614-1687) may serve as salient 
example ; also Thomas Vaughan, and Eobert 
Fludd the Eosicrucian ; and there is formed 
also the Philadelphian Society, and we see 
William Law (a.d. 1686-1761) active in the 
eighteenth century, and overlapping S. 
Martin (a.d. 1743-1803), whose writings 
have fascinated so many nineteenth century 
students. 1 

Nor should we omit Christian Eosenkreutz 
(d. a.d. 1484), whose mystic Society of the 
Eosy Cross, appearing in 1614, held true 
knowledge, and whose spirit was reborn in 

1 Obligation must be here acknowledged to the Article 
"Mysticism," in the Encyc. Brit., though that publication 
is by no means responsible for the opinions expressed. 
115 



Esoteric Christianity 



the " Comte de S. Germain," the mysterious 
figure that appears and disappears through 
the gloom, lit by lurid flashes, of the closing 
eighteenth century. Mystics too were some 
of the Quakers, the much-persecuted sect of 
Friends, seeking the illumination of the In- 
ner Light, and listening ever for the Inner 
Voice. And many another mystic was 
there, "of whom the world was not 
worthy," like the wholly delightful and 
wise Mother Juliana of Norwich, of the 
fourteenth century, jewels of Christendom, 
too little known, but justifying Christianity 
to the world. 

Yet, as we salute reverently these Chil- 
dren of the Light, scattered over the cen- 
turies, we are forced to recognise in them 
the absence of that union of acute intellect 
and high devotion which were welded to- 
gether hy the training of the Mysteries, and 
while we marvel that they soared so high, 
we cannot but wish that their rare gifts had 
been developed under that magnificent dis- 
ciplines arcani. 

Alphonse Louis Constant, better known 
under his pseudonym, Eliphas Levi, has put 

116 



Hidden Side of Christianity 



rather well the loss of the Mysteries, and 
the need for their re-institution. "A great 
misfortune befell Christianity. The be- 
trayal of the Mysteries by the false^Gnostics 
— for the Gnostics, that is, those who know, 
were the Initiates of primitive Christianity 
— caused the Gnosis to be rejected, and 
alienated the Church from the supreme 
truths of the Kabbala, which contain all 
the secrets of transcendental theology. ... 
Let the most absolute science, let the high- 
est reason, become once more the patrimony 
of the leaders of the people ; let the sacer- 
dotal art and the royal art take the double 
sceptre of antique initiations, and the social 
world will once more issue from its chaos. 
Burn the holy images no longer; demolish 
the temples no more; temples and images 
are necessary for men ; but drive the hire- 
lings from the house of prayer ; let the blind 
be no longer leaders of the blind, reconstruct 
the hierarchy of intelligence and holiness, 
and recognise only those who know as the 
teachers of those who believe." 1 

1 The Mysteries of Magic. Trans, by A. E. Waite, pp. 
58 and 60. 

117 



Esoteric Christianity 



Will the Churches of to-day again take up 
the mystic teaching, the Lesser Mysteries, 
and so prepare their children for the re- 
establishment of the Greater Mysteries, again 
drawing down the Angels as Teachers, and 
having as Hierophant the Divine Master, 
Jesus? On the answer to that question de- 
pends the future of Christianity. 



118 



Chapter IV 



THE HISTORICAL CHEIST 

We have already spoken, in the first chap- 
ter, on the identities existing in all the relig- 
ions of the world, and we have seen that out 
of a study of these identities in beliefs, sym- 
bolisms, rites, ceremonies, histories, and com- 
memorative festivals, has arisen a modern 
school which relates the whole of these to 
a common source in human ignorance, and 
in a primitive explanation of natural 
phenomena. From these identities have 
been drawn weapons for the stabbing of each 
religion in turn, and the most effective 
attacks on Christianity and on the historical 
existence of its Founder have been armed 
from this source. On entering now on the 
study of the life of the Christ, of the rites of 
Christianity, its sacraments, its doctrines, 
it would be fatal to ignore the facts 
marshalled by Comparative Mythologists. 
119 



Esoteric Christianity 



Rightly understood, they may be made serv- 
iceable instead of mischievous. We have 
seen that the Apostles and their successors 
dealt very freely with the Old Testament as 
having an allegorical and mystic sense far 
more important than the historical, though 
by no means negating it, and that they did 
not scruple to teach the instructed believer 
that some of the stories that were apparent- 
ly historical were really purely allegorical. 
Nowhere, perhaps, is it more necessary to 
understand this than when we are studying 
the story of Jesus, surnamed the Christ, for 
when we do not disentangle the intertwisted 
threads, and see where symbols have been 
taken as events, allegories as histories, we 
lose most of the instructiveness of the nar- 
rative and much of its rarest beauty. We 
cannot too much insist on the fact that 
Christianity gains, it does not lose, when 
knowledge is added to faith and virtue, ac- 
cording to the apostolic injunction. 1 Men 
fear that Christianity will be weakened 
when reason studies it, and that it is " dan- 
gerous " to admit that events thought to be 

1 II. S. Peter i. 5. 
120 



The Historical Christ 



historical have the deeper significance of the 
mythical or mystical meaning. It is, on the 
contrary, strengthened, and the student 
finds, with joy, that the pearl of great price 
shines with a purer, clearer lustre when the 
coating of ignorance is removed and its 
many colours are seen. 

There are two schools of thought at the 
present time, bitterly opposed to each other, 
who dispute over the story of the great 
Hebrew Teacher. According to one school 
there is nothing at all in the accounts of His 
life save myths and legends — myths and 
legends that were given as explanations of 
certain natural phenomena, survivals of a 
pictorial way of teaching certain facts of 
nature, of impressing on the minds of the 
uneducated certain grand classifications of 
natural events that were important in them- 
selves, and that lent themselves to moral 
instruction. Those who endorse this view 
form a well-defined school to which belong 
many men of high education and strong 
intelligence, and round them gather crowds 
of the less instructed, who emphasise with 
crude vehemence the more destructive ele- 
121 



Esoteric Christianity 



ments in their pronouncements. This school 
is opposed by that of the believers in ortho- 
dox Christianity, who declare that the whole 
story of Jesus is history, unadulterated by 
legend or myth. They maintain that this 
history is nothing more than the history of 
the life of a man born some nineteen cen- 
turies ago in Palestine, who passed through 
all the experiences set down in the Gospels, 
and they deny that the story has any signifi- 
cance beyond that of a divine and human 
life. These two schools stand in direct an- 
tagonism, one asserting that everything is 
legend, the other declaring that everything 
is history. Between them lie many phases 
of opinion generally labelled " freethinking," 
which regard the life-story as partly legend- 
ary and partly historical, but offer no defin- 
ite and rational method of interpretation, no 
adequate explanation of the complex whole. 
And we also find, within the limits of the 
Christian Church, a large and ever-increas- 
ing number of faithful and devout Chris- 
tians of refined intelligence, men and women 
who are earnest in their faith and religious 
in their aspirations, but who see in the Gos- 



The Historical Christ 



pel story more than the history of a single 
divine Man. They allege — defending their 
position from the received Scriptures — that 
the story of the Christ has a deeper and 
more significant meaning than lies on the 
surface; while they maintain the historical 
character of Jesus, they at the same time 
declare that The Christ is more than the 
man Jesus, and has a mystical meaning. 
In support of this contention they point to 
such phrases as that used by S. Paul: "My 
little children, of whom I travail in birth 
again until Christ be formed in you;" 1 
here S. Paul obviously cannot refer to a 
historical Jesus, but to some forthputting 
from the human soul which is to him 
the shaping of Christ therein. Again the 
same teacher declares that though he had 
known Christ after the flesh yet from hence- 
forth he would know him thus no more ; 2 
obviously implying that while he recognised 
the Christ of the flesh — Jesus — there was a 
higher view to which he had attained which 
threw into the shade the historical Christ. 
This is the view which many are seeking in 



^al. iv. 19. 2 II. Cor. v. 16. 

123 



Esoteric Christianity 



our own days, and — faced by the facts of 
Comparative Religion, puzzled by the con- 
tradictions of the Gospels, confused by prob- 
lems they cannot solve so long as they are 
tied down to the mere surface meanings of 
their Scripture — they cry despairingly that 
the letter killeth while the spirit giveth life, 
and seek to trace some deep and wide signifi- 
cance in a story which is as old as the re- 
ligions of the world, and has always served 
as the very centre and life of every religion 
in which it has reappeared. These strug- 
gling thinkers, too unrelated and indefinite 
to be spoken of as forming a school, seem to 
stretch out a hand on one side to those who 
think that all is legend, asking them to ac- 
cept a historical basis ; on the other side they 
say to their fellow Christians that there is a 
growing danger lest, in clinging to a literal 
and unique meaning, which cannot be de- 
fended before the increasing knowledge of 
the day, the spiritual meaning should be 
entirely lost. There is a danger of losing 
"the story of the Christ," with that thought 
of the Christ which has been the support 
and inspiration of millions of noble lives in 

124 



The Historical Christ 



East and West, though the Christ be called 
by other names and worshipped under other 
forms; a danger lest the pearl of great price 
should escape from our hold, and man be 
left the poorer for evermore. 

What is needed, in order that this danger 
may be averted, is to disentangle the differ- 
ent threads in the story of the Christ, and to 
lay them side by side — the thread of history, 
the thread of legend, the thread of mysti- 
cism. These have been intertwined into a 
single strand, to the great loss of the 
thoughtful, and in distentangling them we 
shall find that the story becomes more, not 
less, valuable as knowledge is added to it, 
and that here, as in all that is basically of 
the truth, the brighter the light thrown 
upon it the greater the beauty that is re- 
vealed. 

We will study first the historical Christ ; 
secondly, the mythic Christ; thirdly, the 
mystic Christ. And we shall find that ele- 
ments drawn from all these make up the 
Jesus Christ of the Churches. They all en- 
ter into the composition of the grandiose 

and pathetic Figure which dominates the 
125 



Esoteric Christianity 



thoughts and the emotions of Christendom, 
the Man of Sorrows, the Saviour, the Lover 
and Lord of Men. 

The Historical Christ 
or Jesus the Healer and Teacher 

The thread of the life-story of Jesus is one 
which may be disentangled from those with 
which it is intertwined without any great 
difficulty. We may fairly here aid our 
study by reference to those records of the 
past which experts can re verify for them- 
selves, and from which certain details re- 
garding the Hebrew Teacher have been 
given to the world by H. P. Blavatsky and 
by others who are experts in occult investi- 
gation . Now in the minds of many there is apt 
to arise a challenge when this word "expert " 
is used in connection with occultism. 
Yet it only means a person who by special 
study, by special training, has accumulated 
a special kind of knowledge, and has devel- 
oped powers that enable him to give an 
opinion founded on his own individual 

knowledge of the subject with which he is 

126 



The Historical Christ 



dealing. Just as we speak of Huxley as an 
expert in biology, as we speak of a Senior 
Wrangler as . an expert in mathematics, or 
of Lyell as an expert in geology, so we may 
fairly call a man an expert in occultism who 
has first mastered intellectually certain 
fundamental theories of the constitution of 
man and the universe, and secondly has de- 
veloped within himself the powers that are 
latent in everyone — and are capable of being 
developed by those who give themselves to 
appropriate studies- — capacities which enable 
him to examine for himself the more obscure 
processes of nature. As a man may be born 
with a mathematical faculty, and by train- 
ing that faculty year after year may im- 
mensely increase his mathematical capacity, 
so may a man be born with certain faculties 
within him, faculties belonging to the Soul, 
which he can develop by training and by 
discipline. When, having developed those 
faculties, he applies them to the study of the 
invisible world, such a man becomes an 
expert in Occult Science, and such a man 
can at his will reverify the records to which 
I have referred. Such reverification is as 

i 97 



Esoteric Christianity 



much out of the reach of the ordinary per- 
son as a mathematical book written in the 
symbols of the higher mathematics is out 
of the reach of those who are untrained in 
mathematical science. There is nothing 
exclusive in the knowledge save as every 
science is exclusive; those who are born 
with a faculty, and train the faculty, can 
master its appropriate science, while those 
who start life without any faculty, or those 
who do not develop it if they have it, must 
be content to remain in ignorance. These 
are the rules everywhere of the obtaining of 
knowledge, in Occultism as in every other 
science. 

The occult records partly endorse the story 
told in the Gospels, and partly do not endorse 
it; they show us the life, and thus enable 
us to disentangle it from the myths which 
are intertwined therewith. 

The child whose Jewish name has been 
turned into that of Jesus was born in Pales- 
tine, B.C. 105, during the consulate of Pub- 
lius Rutilius Eufus and Gnaeus Mallius 
Maxim us. His parents were well-born 
though poor, and he was educated in a 

128 



The Historical Christ 



knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. His 
fervent devotion and a gravity beyond his 
years led his parents to dedicate him to the 
religious and ascetic life, and soon after a 
visit to Jerusalem, in which the extraordi- 
nary intelligence and eagerness for know- 
ledge of the youth were shown in his seeking 
of the doctors in the Temple, he was sent to 
be trained in an Essene community in the 
southern Judaean desert. When he had 
reached the age of nineteen he went on to 
the Essene monastery near Mount Serbal, a 
monastery which was much visited by learn- 
ed men travelling from Persia and India 
to Egypt, and where a magnificent library 
of occult works — many of them Indian of 
the Trans-Himalayan regions — had been 
established. From this seat of mystic learn- 
ing he proceeded later to Egypt. He had 
been fully instructed in the secret teachings 
which were the real fount of life among the 
Essenes, and was initiated in Egypt as a dis- 
ciple of that one sublime Lodge from which 
every great religion has its Founder. For 
Egypt has remained one of the world- 
centres of the true Mysteries, whereof all 
9 129 



Esoteric Christianity 



semi-public Mysteries are the faint and far- 
off reflections. The Mysteries spoken of in 
history as Egyptian were the shadows of the 
true things "in the Mount," and there the 
young Hebrew deceived the solemn con- 
secration which prepared him for the Royal 
Priesthood he was later to attain. So super- 
humanly pure and so full of devotion was 
he, that in his gracious manhood he stood 
out pre-eminently from the severe and some- 
what fanatical ascetics among whom he had 
been trained, shedding on the stern Jews 
around him the fragrance of a gentle and 
tender wisdom, as a rose-tree strangely 
planted in a desert would shed its sweetness 
on the barrenness around. The fair and 
stately grace of his white purity was round 
him as a radiant moonlit halo, and his 
words, though few, were ever sweet and 
loving, winning even the most harsh to a 
temporary gentleness, and the most rigid to 
a passing softness. Thus he lived through 
nine-and-twenty years of mortal life, grow- 
ing from grace to grace. 

This superhuman purity and devotion 
fitted the man Jesus, the disciple, to become 

130 



The Historical Christ 



the temple of a loftier Power, of a mighty, 
indwelling Presence. The time had come 
for one of those Divine manifestations 
which from age to age are made for the 
helping of humanity, when a new impulse 
is needed to quicken the spiritual evolution 
of mankind, when a new r civilisation is 
about to dawn. The world of the West was 
then in the womb of time, ready for the 
birth, and the Teutonic sub-race was to 
catch the sceptre of empire falling from the 
failing hands of Rome. Ere it started on 
its journey a World-Saviour must appear, 
to stand in blessing beside the cradle of the 
infant Hercules. 

A mighty "Son of God 55 was to take flesh 
upon earth, a supreme Teacher, "full of 
grace and truth " 1 — One in whom the Di- 
vine Wisdom abode in fullest measure, who 
was verily "the Word 55 incarnate, Light 
and Life in outpouring richness, a very 
Fountain of the Waters of Life. Lord of 
Compassion and of Wisdom — such was His 
name — and from His dwelling in the Secret 
Places He came forth into the world of men. 



1 S. John i. 14 
131 



Esoteric Christianity 



For Him was needed an earthly tabern- 
acle, a human form, the body of a man, 
and who so fit to yield his body in glad and 
willing service to One before whom Angels 
and men krw down in lowliest reverence, as 
this Hebrew of the Hebrews, this purest and 
noblest of "the Perfect," whose spotless 
body and stainless mind offered the best that 
humanity could bring? The man Jesus 
yielded himself a willing sacrifice, "offered 
himself without spot " to the Lord of Love, 
who took unto Himself that pure form as 
tabernacle, and dwelt therein for three years 
of mortal life. 

This epoch is marked in the traditions em- 
bodied in the Gospels as that of the Baptism 
of Jesus, when the Spirit was seen "de- 
scending from heaven like a dove, and it 
abode upon Him," 1 and a celestial voice 
proclaimed Him as the beloved Son, to 
whom men should give ear. Truly was He 
the beloved Son in whom the Father was 
well-pleased, 2 and from that time forward 
"Jesus began to preach," 3 and was that 



1 S. John i. 32. 9 S. Matt. iii. 17. 

*IMd. y iv. 17. 
132 



The Historical Christ 



wondrous mystery, "God manifest in the 
flesh" 1 — not unique in that He was God, 
for: "Is it not written in your law, I said, 
Ye are Gods? If he called them Gods, unto 
whom the word of God came, and the script- 
ure cannot be broken; say ye of Him, 
whom the Father hath sanctified and sent 
into the world, Thou blasphemest; because 
I said, I am the Son of God?" 2 Truly 
all men are Gods, in respect to the Spirit 
within them, but not in all is the Godhead 
manifested, as in that well-beloved Son 
of the Most High. 

To that manifested Presence the name of 
"the Christ" may rightly be given, and it 
was He who lived and moved in the form 
of the man Jesus over the hills and plains 
of Palestine, teaching, healing diseases, and 
gathering round Him as disciples a few of 
the more advanced souls. The rare charm 
of His royal love, outpouring from Him as 
rays from a sun, drew round Him the suf- 
fering, the weary, and the oppressed, and 
the subtly tender magic of His gentle wis- 
dom purified, ennobled, and sweetened the 



1 1. Tim. iii. 16. 2 S. John x. 34-36. 

133 



Esoteric Christianity 

lives that came into contact with His own. 
By parable and luminous imagery He taught 
the uninstructed crowds who pressed around 
Him, and, using the powers of the free 
Spirit, He healed many a disease by word or 
touch, re -in forcing the magnetic energies 
belonging to His pure body with the compel- 
ling force of His inner life. Rejected by 
His Essene brethren among whom He first 
laboured — whose arguments against His 
purposed life of loving labour are summari- 
sed in the story of the temptation — because 
he carried to the people the spiritual wisdom 
that they regarded as their proudest and 
most secret treasure, and because His all- 
embracing love drew within its circle the 
outcast and the degraded — ever loving in 
the lowest as in the highest the Divine Self 
— He saw gathering round Him all too 
quickly the dark clouds of hatred and sus- 
picion. The teachers and rulers of His 
nation soon came to eye Him with jealousy 
and anger; His spirituality was a constant 
reproach to their materialism, His power 
a constant, though silent, exposure of their 
weaknesSe Three years had scarcely passed 

134 



The Historical Christ 



since His baptism when the gathering storm 
outbroke, and the human body of Jesus paid 
the penalty for enshrining the glorious 
Presence of a Teacher more than man. 

The little band of chosen disciples whom 
He had selected as repositories of His teach- 
ings were thus deprived of their Master's 
physical presence ere they had assimilated 
His instructions, but they were souls of high 
and advanced type, ready to learn the Wis- 
dom, and fit to hand it on to lesser men. 
Most receptive of all was that " disciple 
whom Jesus loved," young, eager, and ferv- 
id, profoundly devoted to his Master, and 
sharing His spirit of all-embracing love. 
He represented, through the century that 
followed the physical departure of the 
Christ, the spirit of mystic devotion that 
sought the exstasis, the vision of and the 
union with the Divine, while the later great 
Apostle, S. Paul, represented the wisdom 
side of the Mysteries. 

The Master did not forget His promise to 
come to them after the world had lost sight 
of Him, 1 and for something over fifty years 



1 S. John xiv. 18, 19. 
135 



Esoteric Christianity- 



He visited them in His subtle spiritual body, 
continuing the teachings He had begun 
while with them, and training them in 
a knowledge of occult truths. They lived 
together, for the most part ? in a retired 
spot on the outskirts of Judaaa, attracting 
no attention among the many apparently 
similar communities of the time, studying 
the profound truths He taught them and 
acquiring "the gifts of the Spirit " 

These inner instructions, commenced 
during His physical life among them and 
carried on after He had left the body, 
formed the basis of the " Mysteries of Jesus," 
which we have seen in early Church His- 
tory, and gave the inner life which was the 
nucleus round which gathered the hetrogen- 
eous materials which formed ecclesiastical 
Christianity. 

In the remarkable fragment called the 
Pistis Sophia^ we have a document of the 
greatest interest bearing on the hidden 
teaching, written by the famous Valentinus. 
In this it is said that during the eleven 
years immediately after His death Jesus in- 
structed His disciples so far as "the regions 

136 



The Historical Christ 



of the first statutes only, and up to the 
regions of the first mystery, the mystery 
within the veil." 1 They had not so far 
learned the distribution of the angelic 
orders, of part whereof Ignatius speaks. 2 
Then Jesus, being "in the Mount 5 ' with His 
disciples, and having received His mystic 
Vesture, the knowledge of all the regions 
and the Words of Power which unlocked 
them, taught His disciples further, promis- 
ing: ££ I will perfect you in every perfection, 
from the mysteries of the interior to the 
mysteries of the exterior : I will fill you with 
the Spirit, so that ye shall be called spirit- 
ual, perfect in all perfections." 3 And He 
taught them of Sophia, the Wisdom, and of 
her fall into matter in her attempt to rise 
unto the Highest, and of her cries to the 
Light in which she had trusted, and of the 
sending of Jesus to redeem her from chaos, 
and of her crowning with His light, and 
leading forth from bondage. And He told 
them further of the highest Mystery the 
ineffable, the simplest and clearest of all, 



1 Valentinus. Trans, by G. R. S. Mead. Pistis Sophia, 
bk. i., 1. * Ante, v. n. *IMd.,W. 

137 



Esoteric Christianity 



though the highest, to be known by him 
alone who utterly renounced the world ; 1 by 
that knowledge men became Christs, for 
such " men are myself, and I am these 
men," for Christ is that highest Mystery. 2 
Knowing that, men are "transformed into 
pure light and are brought into the light." 3 
And He performed for them the great cere- 
mony of Initiation, the baptism " which 
leadeth to the region of truth and into the 
region of light, 9 ' and bade them celebrate it 
for others who were worthy: "But hide ye 
this mystery, give it not unto every man, 
but unto him [only] who shall do all things 
which I have said unto you in my com- 
mandments." 4 

Thereafter, being fully instructed, the 
apostles went forth to preach, ever aided by 
their Master. 

Moreover these same disciples and their 
earliest colleagues wrote down from memory 
all the public sayings and parables of the 
Master that they had heard, and collected 
with great eagerness any reports they could 



1 Ibid., bk. ii., 218. 
3 IMd., 357. 

138 



^Ibid., 230. 
4 Ibid., 377. 



The Historical Christ 



find, writing down these also, and circulat- 
ing them all among those who gradually at- 
tached themselves to their small community. 
Various collections were made, any member 
writing down what he himself remembered, 
and adding selections from the accounts of 
others. The inner teachings, given by the 
Christ to His chosen ones, were not written 
down, but were taught orally to those 
deemed worthy to receive them, to students 
who formed small communities for leading 
a retired life, and remained in touch with 
the central body. 

The historical Christ, then, is a glorious 
Being belonging to the great spiritual hier- 
archy that guides the spiritual evolution of 
humanity, who used for some three years 
the human body of the disciple Jesus; who 
spent the last of these three years in public 
teaching throughout Judaea and Samaria; 
who was a healer of diseases and performed 
other remarkable occult works; who gath- 
ered round Him a small band of disciples 
whom He instructed in the deeper truths of 
the spiritual life; who drew men to Him by 
the singular love and tenderness and the 

139 



Esoteric Christianity 



rich wisdom that breathed from His Per- 
son ; and who was finally put to death for 
blasphemy, for teaching the inherent Divin- 
ity of Himself and of all men. He came to 
give a new impulse of spiritual life to the 
world ; to re-issue the inner teachings affect- 
ing spiritual life; to mark out again the 
Barrow ancient way ; to proclaim the exist- 
ence of the " Kingdom of Heaven," of the 
Initiation which admits to that knowledge 
of God which is eternal life ; and to admit a 
few to that Kingdom who should be able to 
teach others. Bound this glorious Figure 
gathered the myths which united Him to 
the long array of His predecessors, the 
myths telling in allegory the story of all 
such lives, as they symbolise the work of the 
Logos in the Kosmos and the higher evolu- 
tion of the individual human soul. 

But it must not be supposed that the work 
of the Christ for His followers was over 
after He had established the Mysteries, or was 
confined to rare appearances therein. That 
Mighty One who had used the body of Jesus 
as His vehicle, and whose guardian care ex- 
tends over the whole spiritual evolution of 

140 



The Historical Christ 



the fifth race of humanity, gave into the 
strong hands of the holy disciple who had 
surrendered to Him his body the care of the 
infant Church. Perfecting his human evo- 
lution, Jesus became one of the Masters of 
Wisdom, and took Christianity under His 
special charge, ever seeking to guide it to 
the right lines, to protect, to guard and 
nourish it. He was the Hierophant in the 
Christian Mysteries, the direct Teacher of 
the Initiates. His the inspiration that kept 
alight the Gnosis in the Church, until the 
superincumbent mass of ignorance became 
so great that even His breath could not fan 
the flame sufficiently to prevent its extin- 
guishment. His the patient labour which 
strengthened soul after soul to endure 
through the darkness, and cherish within 
itself the spark of mystic longing, the thirst 
to find the Hidden God. His the steady 
inpouring of truth into every brain ready to 
receive it, so that hand stretched out to 
hand across the centuries and passed on the 
torch of knowledge, which thus was never 
extinguished. His the Form which stood 

beside the rack and in the flames of the burn- 
141 



Esoteric Christianity 



ing pile, cheering His confessors and His 
martyrs, soothing the anguish of their 
pains, and filling their hearts with His peace. 
His the impulse which spoke in the thunder 
of Savonarola, which guided the calm wis- 
dom of Erasmus, which inspired the deep 
ethics of the God-intoxicated Spinoza. His 
the energy which impelled Roger Bacon, 
Galileo, and Paracelsus in their searchings 
into nature. His the beauty that allured 
Fra Angelica and Raphael and Leonardo da 
Vinci, that inspired the genius of Michel- 
angelo, that shone before the eyes of Murillo, 
and that gave the power that raised the 
marvels of the world, the Duomo of Milan, 
the San Marco of Venice, the Cathedral of 
Florence. His the melody that breathed in the 
masses of Mozart, the sonatas of Beethoven, 
the oratorios of Handel, the fugues of Bach, 
the austere splendour of Brahms. His the 
Presence that cheered the solitary mystics, 
the hunted occultists, the patient seekers 
after truth. By persuasion and by menace, 
by the eloquence of a S. Francis and by 
the gibes of a Voltaire, by the sweet sub- 
mission of a Thomas a Kempis, and the 

142 



The Historical Christ 



rough virility of a Luther, He sought to 
instruct and awaken, to win into holiness 
or to scourge from evil. Through the long 
centuries He has striven and laboured, and, 
with all the mighty burden of the Churches 
to carry, He has never left uncared for or 
unsolaced one human heart that crie3 to 
Him for help. And now He is striving to 
turn to the benefit of Christendom part of 
the great flood of the Wisdom poured out 
for the refreshing of the world, and He is 
seeking through the Churches for some who 
have ears to hear the Wisdom, and who will 
answer to His appeal for messengers to carry 
it to His flock: "Here am I; send me." 



143 



Chapter V 



THE MYTHIC CHRIST 

We have already seen the use that is made 
of Comparative Mythology against Keligion, 
and some of its most destructive attacks 
have been levelled against the Christ. His 
birth of a Virgin at " Christmas," the 
slaughter of the Innocents, His wonder- 
working and His teachings, His crucifixion, 
resurrection, and ascension — all these 
events in the story of His life are pointed to 
in the stories of other lives, and His histori- 
cal existence is challenged on the strength 
of these identities. So far as the wonder- 
working and the teachings are concerned, 
we may briefly dismiss these first with the 
acknowledgment that most great Teachers 
have wrought works which, on the physical 
plane, appear as miracles in the sight of 
their contemporaries, but are known by oc- 
cultists to be done- by the exercise of powers 

144 



The Mythic Christ 



possessed by all Initiates above a certain 
grade. The teachings He gave may also 
be acknowledged to be non-original; but 
where the student of Comparative Myth- 
ology thinks that he has proved that none is 
divinely inspired, when he shows that sim- 
ilar moral teachings fell from the lips of 
Manu, from the lips of the Buddha, from 
the lips of Jesus, the occultist says that cert- 
ainly Jesus must have repeated the teach- 
ings of His predecessors, since He was a 
messenger from the same Lodge. The pro- 
found verities touching the divine and the 
human Spirit were as much truths twenty 
thousand years before Jesus was born in 
Palestine as after He was born; and to say 
that the world was left without such teach- 
ing, and that man was left in moral dark- 
ness from his beginnings to twenty centu- 
ries ago, is to say that there was a human- 
ity without a Teacher, children without a 
Father, human souls crying for light into a 
darkness that gave them no answer — a con- 
ception as blasphemous of God as it is des- 
perate for man, a conception contradicted 
by the appearance of every Sage, by the 
10 145 



Esoteric Christianity 



mighty literature, by the noble lives, in the 
thousands of ages ere the Christ came forth. 

Recognising then in Jesus the great Mas- 
ter of the West, the leading Messenger of 
the Lodge to the western world, we must 
face the difficulty which has made havoc of 
this belief in the minds of many : Why are 
the festivals that commemorate events in 
the life of Jesus found in pre-Christian re- 
ligions, and in them commemorate identical 
events in the lives of other Teachers? 

Comparative Mythology, which has 
drawn public attention to this question in 
modern times, may be said to be about a 
century old, dating from the appearance of 
Dulaure's Histoire Abregee de differ ens 
CulteSj of Dupuis' Origine de tous les Cul- 
tes, of Moor's Hindu Pantheon, and of God- 
frey Higgins' Anacalypsis. These works 
were followed by a shoal of others, growing 
more scientific and rigid in their collection 
and comparison of facts, until it has be- 
come impossible for any educated person to 
even challenge the identities and similari- 
ties existing in every direction. Christians 
are not to be found, in these days, who are 

146 



The Mythic Christ 

prepared to contend that Christian symbols, 
rites, and ceremonies are unique — except, 
indeed, among the ignorant. There we still 
behold simplicity of belief hand -in-hand 
with ignorance of facts; but outside this 
class we do not find even the most devout 
Christians alleging that Christianity has 
not very much in common with faiths older 
than itself. But it is well-known that in 
the first centuries "after Christ " these like- 
nesses were on all hands admitted, and that 
modern Comparative Mythology is only re- 
peating with great precision that which was 
universally recognised in the Early Church. 
Justin Martyr, for instance, crowds his 
pages with references to the religions of his 
time, and if a modern assailant of Christ- 
ianity would cite a number of cases in 
which Christian teachings are identical with 
those of elder religions, he can find no better 
guides than the apologists of the second 
century. They quote Pagan teachings, 
stories, and symbols, pleading that the very 
identity of the Christian with these should 
prevent the off-hand rejection of the latter 
as in themselves incredible. A curious 
147 



Esoteric Christianity 



reason is, indeed, given for this identity, one 
that will scarcely find many adherents in 
modern days. Says Justin Martyr: " Those 
who hand down the myths which the poets 
have made adduce no proof to the youths 
who learn them ; and we proceed to demon- 
strate that they have been uttered by the 
influence of the wicked demons, to deceive 
and lead astray the human race. For 
having heard it proclaimed through the 
prophets that the Christ was to come, and 
that the ungodly among men were to be 
punished by fire, they put forward many to be 
called sons of Jupiter, under the impression 
that they would be able to produce in men 
the idea that the things which were said 
with regard to Christ were mere marvellous 
tales, like the things whch were said by the 
poets." "And the devils, indeed, having 
heard this washing published by the prophet, 
instigated those who enter their temples, 
and are about to approach them with liba- 
tions and burnt offerings, also to sprinkle 
themselves; and they cause them also to 
wash themselves entirely as they depart.' 5 
"Which [the Lord's Supper] the wicked 

148 



The Mythic Christ 



devils have imitated in the mysteries of 
Mithras, commanding the same thing to be 
done." 1 "For I myself, when I discovered 
the wicked disguise which the evil spirits 
had thrown around the divine doctrines of 
the Christians, to turn aside others from 
joining them, laughed." 2 

These identities were thus regarded as the 
work of devils, copies of the Christian origin- 
als, largely circulated in the pre-Christian 
world with the object of prejudicing the 
reception of the truth when it came. There 
is a certain difficulty in accepting the earli- 
er statements as copies and the later as 
originals, but without disputing with Justin 
Martyr whether the copies preceded the 
original or the original the copies, we may 
be content to accept his testimony as to the 
existence of these identities between the 
faith flourishing in the Eoman empire of his 
time and the new religion he was engaged 
in defending. 

Tertullian speaks equally plainly, stating 

^ol. II. Justin Martyr. First Apology, liv., lxii. 
and lxvi. 

2 Vol. II. Justin Martyr. Second Apology, § xiiL 
149 



Esoteric Christianity 



the objection made in his days also to Chris- 
tianity, that " the nations who are strangers 
to all understanding of spiritual powers, 
ascribe to their idols the imbuing of waters 
with the self -same efficacy." "So they do," 
he answers quite frankly, "but these cheat 
themselves with waters that are widowed. 
For washing is the channel through which 
they are initiated into some sacred rites of 
some notorious Isis or Mithra ; and the 
Gods themselves they honour by washings. 
.... At the Appollinarian and Eleusinian 
games they are baptised ; and they presume 
that the effect of their doing that is the re- 
generation and the remission of the penal- 
ties due to their perjuries. Which fact, 
being acknowledged, we recognise here also 
the zeal of the devil rivalling the things of 
God, while we find him too practising bapt- 
ism in his subjects." 1 

To solve the difficulty of these identities 
we must study the Mythic Christ, the Christ 
of the solar myths or legends, these myths 
being the pictorial forms in which certain 
profound truths were given to the world. 

1 Vol. VII. Tertullian, On Baptism, cli. v. 
150 



The Mythic Christ 

Now a "myth " is by no means what most 
people imagine it to be — a mere fanciful 
story erected on a basis of fact, or even 
altogether apart from fact. A myth is far 
truer than a history, for a history only 
gives a story of the shadows, whereas a 
myth gives a story of the substances that 
cast the shadows. As above so below; and 
first above and then below. There are cert- 
ain great principles according to which our 
system is built; there are certain laws by 
which these principles are worked out in 
detail; there are certain Beings a who em- 
body the principles and whose activities are 
the laws ; there are hosts of inferior beings 
who act as vehicles for these activities, as 
agents, as instruments; there are the Egos 
of men intermingled with all these, per- 
forming their share of the great kosmic 
drama. These multifarious workers in the 
invisible worlds cast their shadows on physic- 
al matter, and these shadows are " things ?? 
— the bodies, the objects, that make up the 
physical universe. These shadows give but 
a poor idea of the objects that cast them, 
just as what we call shadows down here 
151 



Esoteric Christianity 



give but a poor idea of the objects that cast 
them; they are mere outlines, with blank 
darkness in lieu of details, and have only 
length and breadth, no depth. 

History is an account, very imperfect 
and often distorted, of the dance of these 
shadows in the shadow-world of physical 
matter. Anyone who has seen a clever Shadow- 
Play, and has compared what goes on behind 
the screen on which the shadows are cast 
with the movements of the shadows on 
the screen, may have a vivid idea of the 
illusory nature of the shadow-actions, and 
may draw therefrom several not misleading 
analogies. 1 

Myth is an account of the movements of 
those who cast the shadows; and the lan- 
guage in which the account is given is what 
is called the language of symbols. Just as 
here we have words which stand for things 
—as the word " table" is a symbol for a 
recognised article of a certain kind — so do 
symbols stand for objects on higher planes. 

1 The student might read Plato's account of the " Cave " 
and its inhabitants, remembering that Plato was an Initiate. 
Republic, Bk. vii. 

152 



The Mythic Christ 



They are a pictorial alphabet, used by all 
myth-writers, and each has its recognised 
meaning. A symbol is used to signify a 
certain object just as words are used down 
here to distinguish one thing from another, 
and so a knowledge of symbols is necessary 
for the reading of a myth. For the origin- 
al tellers of great myths are ever Initiates, 
who are accustomed to use the symbolic lan- 
guage, and who, of course, use symbols in 
their fixed and accepted meanings. 

A symbol has a chief meaning, and then 
various subsidiary meanings related to that 
chief meaning. For instance, the Sun is 
the symbol of the Logos ; that is its chief or 
primary significance. But it stands also for 
an incarnation of the Logos, or for any of 
the great Messengers who represent Him 
for the time, as an ambassador represents 
his King. High Initiates who are sent on 
special missions to incarnate among men 
and live with them for a time as Rulers 
or Teachers, would be designated by the 
symbol of the Sun; for though it is not 
their symbol in an individual sense, it is 
theirs in virtue of their office. 

153 



Esoteric Christianity 



All those who are signified by this symbol 
have certain characteristics, pass through 
certain situations, perform certain activi- 
ties, during their lives on earth. The Sun 
is the physical shadow, or body, as it is 
called, of the Logos; hence its yearly course 
in nature reflects His activity, in the partial 
way in which a shadow represents the 
activity of the object that casts it. The 
Logos, "the Son of God," descending into 
matter, has as shadow the annual course of 
the Sun, and the Sun -Myth tells it. Hence, 
again, an incarnation of the Logos, or one 
of His high ambassadors, will also represent 
that activity, shadow-like, in His body as a 
man. Thus will necessarily arise identities 
in the life-histories of these ambassadors. 
In fact, the absence of such identities would 
at once point out that the person concerned 
was not a full ambassador, and that his 
mission was of a lower order. 

The Solar Myth, then, is a story which 
primarily representing the activity of the 
Logos, or Word, in the kosmos, secondarily 
embodies the life of one who is an incarna- 
tion of the Logos, or is one of His ambas- 

154 



The Mythic Christ 



sadors. The Hero of the myth is usually 
represented as a God, or Demi-God, and his 
life, as will be understood by what has been 
said above, must be outlined by the course 
of the Sun, as the shadow of the Logos. 
The part of the course lived out during 
the human life is that which falls between 
the winter solstice and the reaching of the 
zenith in summer. The Hero is born 
at the winter solstice, dies at the spring 
equinox, and, conquering death, rises 
into mid-heaven. 

The following remarks are interesting in 
this connection, though looking at myth in 
a more general way, as an allegory, pictur- 
ing inner truths: "Alfred de Vigny has 
said that legend is frequently more true 
than history, because legend recounts not 
acts which are often incomplete and abort- 
ive, but the genius itself of great men and 
great nations. It is pre-eminently to the 
Gospel that this beautiful thought is applic- 
able, for the Gospel is not merely the narra- 
tion of what has been; it is the sublime 
narration of what is and what always will 
be. Ever will the Saviour of the world be 
155 



Esoteric Christianity 



adored by the kings of intelligence, repre- 
sented by the Magi; ever will He multiply 
the eucharistic bread, to nourish and com- 
fort our souls ; ever, when we invoke Him 
in the night and the tempest, will He come 
to us walking on the waters, ever will He 
stretch forth His hand and make us pass 
over the crests of the billows ; ever will He 
cure our distempers and give back light to 
our eyes; ever will He appear to His faith- 
ful, luminous and transfigured upon Tabor, 
interpreting the law of Moses and moderat- 
ing the zeal of Elias." 1 

We shall find that myths are very closely 
related to the Mysteries, for part of the 
Mysteries consisted in showing living pic- 
tures of the occurrences in the higher 
worlds that became embodied in myths. In 
fact in the Pseudo-Mysteries, mutilated 
fragments of the living pictures of the true 
Mysteries were represented by actors who 
acted out a drama, and many secondary 
myths are these dramas put into words. 

The broad outlines of the story of the 

Sun-God are very clear, the eventful life of 

1 Eliphas Levi. The Mysteries of Magic, p. 48, 
156 



The Mythic Christ 

the Sun-God being spanned within the first 
six months of the solar year, the other six 
being employed in the general protecting 
and preserving. He is always born at the 
winter solstice, after the shortest day in the 
year, at the midnight of the 24th of Decem- 
ber, when the sign Virgo is rising above the 
horizon ; born as this sign is rising, he is 
born always of a virgin, and she remains 
a virgin after she has given birth to her 
Sun-Child, as the celestial Virgo remains 
unchanged and unsullied when the Sun 
comes forth from her in the heavens. Weak, 
feeble as an infant is he, born when the 
days are shortest and the nights are longest 
— we are on the north of the equatorial line — 
surrounded with perils in his infancy, and 
the reign of the darkness far longer than 
his in his early days. But he lives through 
all the threatening dangers, and the day 
lengthens towards the spring equinox, till 
the time comes for the crossing over, the 
crucifixion, the date varying with each year. 
The Sun-God is sometimes found sculptured 
within the circle of the horizon, with the 
head and feet touching the circle at north 
157 



Esoteric Christianity 



and south, and the outstretched hands at 
east and west— "He was crucified." After 
this he rises triumphantly and ascends into 
heaven, and ripens the corn and the grape, 
giving his very life to them to make their 
substance and through them to his wor- 
shippers. The God who is born at the 
dawning of December 25th is ever crucified 
at the spring equinox, and ever gives his 
life as food to his worshippers — these are 
among the most salient marks of the Sun- 
God. The fixity of the birth-date and the 
variableness of the death-date are full of 
significance, when we remember that the 
one is a fixed and the other a variable solar 
position. "Easter" is a movable event, 
calculated by the relative positions of sun 
and moon, an impossible way of fixing year 
by year the anniversary of a historical 
event, but a very natural and indeed inevit- 
able way of calculating a solar festival. 
These changing dates do not point to the 
history of a man, but to the Hero of a solar 
myth. 

These events are reproduced in the lives 
of the various Solar Gods, and antiquity 

158 



The Mythic Christ 



teems with illustrations of them. Isis of 
Egypt like Mary of Bethlehem was our Im- 
maculate Lady, Star of the Sea, Queen of 
Heaven, Mother of God. We see her in 
pictures standing on the crescent moon, 
star-crowned; she nurses her child Horus, 
and the cross appears on the back of the 
seat in which he sits on his mother's knee. 
The Virgo of the Zodiac is represented in 
ancient drawings as a woman suckling a 
child — the type of all future Madonnas with 
their divine Babes, showing the origin of 
the symbol. Devaki is likewise figured 
with the divine Krishna in her arms, as is 
Mylitta, or Istar, of Babylon, also with the 
recurrent crown of stars, and with her child 
Tammuz on her knee. Mercury and -ZEs- 
culapius, Bacchus and Hercules, Perseus 
and the Dioscuri, Mithras and Zarathustra, 
were all of divine and human birth. 

The relation of the winter solstice to 
Jesus is also significant. The birth of 
Mithras was celebrated in the winter solstice 
with great rejoicings, and Horus was also 
then born : " His birth is one of the great- 
est mysteries of the [Egyptian] religion. 
159 



Esoteric Christianity 



Pictures representing it appeared on the 
walls of temples. . . . He was the child of 
Deity. At Christmas time, or that answer- 
ing to our festival, his image was brought 
out of the sanctuary with peculiar ceremo- 
nies, as the image of the infant Bambino is 
still brought out and exhibited at Eome." 1 

On the fixing of the 25th December as 
the birthday of Jesus, Williamson has the 
following: "All Christians know that the 
25th December is now the recognised festi- 
val of the birth of Jesus, but few are aware 
that this has not always been so. There 
have been, it is said, one hundred and 
thirty-six different dates fixed on by differ- 
ent Christian sects. Lightfoot gives it as 
15th September, others as in February or 
August. Epiphanius mentions two sects, 
one celebrating it in June, the other in 
July. The matter was finally settled by 
Pope Julius L, in 337 a.d., and S. Ohrysos- 
torn, writing in 390, says: 'On this clay 
[i.e. 25th December] also the birth of Christ 



1 Bonwick. Egyptian Belief, p. 157. Quoted in 
Williamson's Great Law, p. 26. 

160 



The Mythic Christ 



was lately fixed at Rome, in order that 
while the heathen were busy with their 
ceremonies [the Brumalia, in honour of 
Bacchus] the Christians might perform 
their rites undisturbed.' Gibbon in his 
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 
writes: £ The [Christian] Romans, as ignorant 
as their brethren of the real date of his 
[Christ's] birth fixed the solemn festival to 
the 25th December, the Brumalia or winter 
solstice, when the Pagans annually celeb- 
rated the birth of the Sun.' King, in his 
Gnostics and their Remains, also says: 
' The ancient festival held on the 25th 
December in honour of the birthday of the 
Invincible One, 1 and celebrated by the great 
games at the Circus, was afterwards trans- 
ferred to the commemoration of the birth of 
Christ, the precise date of which many of 
the Fathers confess was then unknown ' ; 
while at the present day Canon Farrar 
writes that 6 all attempts to discover the 
month and day of the nativity are useless. 



l The festival "Natalis Solis Invicti," the birthday of 
the Invincible Sun. 

11 161 



Esoteric Christianity 



No data whatever exist to enable us to de- 
termine them with even approximate accu- 
racy.' From the foregoing it is apparent 
that the great festival of the winter solstice 
has been celebrated during past ages, and 
in widely separated lands, in honour of the 
birth of a God, who is almost invariably 
alluded to as a ' Saviour, ' and whose mother 
is referred to as a pure virgin. The 
striking resemblances, too, which have been 
instanced not only in the birth but in the 
life of so many of these Saviour-Gods are 
far too numerous to be accounted for by 
any mere coincidence." 1 

In the case of the Lord Buddha we may 
see how a myth attaches itself to a histori- 
cal personage. The story of His life is well 
known, and in the current Indian accounts 
the birth-story is simple and human. But 
in the Chinese account He is born of a vir- 
gin, Mayadevi, the archaic myth finding in 
Him a new Hero. 

1 Williamson. The Great Law, pp. 40-42. Those who 
wish to study this matter as one of Comparative Religion 
cannot do better than read The Great Law, whose author 
is a profoundly religious man and a Christian. 

162 



The Mythic Christ 



Williamson also tells us that fires were 
and are lighted on the 25th December on 
the hills among Keltic peoples, and these 
are still known among the Irish and the 
Scotch Highlanders as Bheil or Baaltinne, 
the fires thus bearing the name of Bel, Bal, 
or Baal, their ancient Deity, the Sun-God, 
though now lighted in honour of Christ. 1 

Kightly considered, the Christmas festi- 
val should take on new elements of rejoic- 
ing and of sacredness, when the lovers of 
Christ see in it the repetition of an ancient 
solemnity, see it stretching all the world 
over, and far, far back into dim antiquity; 
so that the Christmas bells are ringing 
throughout human history, and sound 
musically out of the far-off night of time. 
Not in exclusive possession, but in universal 
acceptance, is found the hall-mark of truth. 

The death-date, as said above, is not 
a fixed one, like the birth-date. The date 
of the death is calculated by the relative 
positions of Sun and Moon at the spring 
equinox, varying with each year, and the 
death-date of each Solar Hero is found to 



l lMd., pp. 36, 37. 
163 



Esoteric Christianity 

be celebrated in this connection. The animal 
adopted as the symbol of the Hero is the 
sign of the Zodiac in which the Sun is at 
the vernal equinox of his age, and this 
varies with the precession of the equinoxes. 
| Cannes of Assyria had the sign of Pisces, 
the Fish, and is thus figured/; Mithra is in 
Taurus, and, therefore, rides on a Bull, and 
Osiris was worshipped as Osiris- A pis, or 
Serapis, the Bull. Merodach of Babylon 
was worshipped as a Bull, as was Astarte 
of Syria. When the Sun is in the sign of 
Aries, the Earn or Lamb, we have Osiris 
again as Ram, and so also Astarte, and 
Jupiter Ammon, and it is this same animal 
that became the symbol of Jesus — the Lamb 
of God. The use of the Lamb as His 
symbol, often leaning on a cross, is common 
in the sculptures of the catacombs. On this 
Williamson says: "In the course of time 
the Lamb was represented on the cross, but 
it was not until the sixth synod of Constan- 
tinople, held about the year 680, that it 
was ordained that instead of the ancient 
symbol, the figure of a man fastened to 
a cross should be represented. This canon 

164 



The Mythic Christ 



was confirmed by Pope Adrian I." 1 The 
very ancient Pisces is also assigned to Jesus, 
and He is thus pictured in the catacombs. 

The death and resurrection of the Solar 
Hero at or about the vernal equinox is as 
wide-spread as his birth at the winter 
solstice. Osiris was then slain by Typhon, 
and He is pictured on the circle of the horiz- 
on, with outstretched arms, as if crucified 
— a posture originally of benediction, not of 
suffering. The death of Tammuz was 
annually bewailed at the spring equinox 
in Babylonia and Syria, as were Adonis in 
Syria and Greece, and Attis in Phrygia, 
pictured "as a man fastened with a lamb at 
the foot." 2 Mithras' death was similarly 
celebrated in Persia, and that of Bacchus 
and Dionysius — one and the same — in 
Greece. In Mexico the same idea re-appears, 
as usual accompanied with the cross. 

In all these cases the mourning for the 
death is immediately followed by the rejoic- 
ing over the resurrection, and on this it 
is interesting to notice that the name of 



1 The Great Law, p. 116. 

165 



*IMd., p. 58. 



Esoteric Christianity 



Easter has been traced to the virgin -mother 
of the slain Tammuz, Ishtar. 1 

It is interesting also to notice that the 
fast preceding the death at the vernal equi- 
nox, — the modern Lent- — is found in Mexi- 
co, Egypt, Persia, Babylon, Assyria, Asia 
Minor, in some cases definitely for forty days. 2 

In the Pseudo-Mysteries, the Sun-God 
story was dramatised, and in the ancient 
Mysteries it was lived by the Initiate, and 
hence the solar " myths 55 and the great facts 
of Initiation became interwoven together. 
Hence when the Master Christ became 
the Christ of the Mysteries, the legends 
of the older Heroes of those Mysteries 
gathered round Him, and the stories were 
again recited with the latest divine Teacher 
as the representative of the Logos in the 
Sun. Then the festival of His nativity 
became the immemorial date when the 
Sun was born of the Virgin, when the mid- 
night sky was filled with the rejoicing hosts 
of the celestials, and 

Very early, very early, Christ was born. 



1 Ibid., p. 56. Uhid., pp. 120-123. 

166 



The Mythic Christ 



As the great legend of the Sun gathered 
round Him, the sign of the Lamb became 
that of His crucifixion as the sign of the 
Virgin had become that of His birth. We 
have seen that the Bull was sacred to 
Mithras and the Fish to Cannes, and that 
the Lamb was sacred to Christ, and for the 
same reason ; it was the sign of the spring 
equinox, at the period of history in which 
He crossed the great circle of the horizon, 
was "crucified in space.' 5 

These Sun myths, ever recurring through- 
out the ages, with a different name for their 
Hero in each new recension, cannot pass 
unrecognised by the student, though they 
may naturally and rightly be ignored by 
the devotee ; and when they are used as a 
weapon to mutilate or destroy the majestic 
figure of the Christ, they must be met, not 
by denying the facts, but by understanding 
the deeper meaning of the stories, the 
spiritual truths that the legends expressed 
under a veil. 

Why have these legends mingled with the 
history of Jesus, and crystallised round 

Him, as a historical personage? These are 
167 



Esoteric Christianity 



really the stories not of a particular indiv - 
idual named Jesus but of the universal 
Christ ; of a Man who symbolised a Divine 
Being, and who represented a fundament- 
al truth in nature ; a Man who filled a cert- 
ain office and held a certain characteristic 
position towards humanity; standing 
towards humanity in a special relationship, 
renewed age after age, as generation suc- 
ceeded generation, as race gave way to race. 
Hence He was, as are all such, the "Son of 
Man, ?? a peculiar and distinctive title, the 
title of an office, not of an individual. The 
Christ of the Solar Myth was the Christ of 
the Mysteries, and we find the secret of the 
mythic in the mystic Christ. 



168 



Chapter VI 



THE MYSTIC CHEIST 

We now approach that deeper side of the 
Christ story that gives it its real hold upon 
the hearts of men, We approach that per- 
ennial life which bubbles up from an unseen 
source, and so baptises its representative 
with its lucent flood that human hearts 
cling round the Christ, and feel that they 
could almost more readily reject the 
apparent facts of history than deny that 
which they intuitively feel to be a vital, an 
essential truth of the higher life. W e draw 
near the sacred portal of the Mysteries, 
and lift a corner of the veil that hides the 
sanctuary. 

We have seen that, go back as far as we 
may into antiquity, we find everywhere recog- 
nised the existence of a hidden teaching, 
a secret doctrine, given under strict and 

exacting conditions to approved candidates 

169 



Esoteric Christianity 



by the Masters of Wisdom. Such candidates 
were initiated into " The Mysteries " — a 
name that covers in antiquity, as we have 
seen, all that was most spiritual in religion, 
all that was most profound in philosophy, 
all that was most valuable in science. 
Every great Teacher of antiquity passed 
through the Mysteries and the greatest 
were the Hierophants of the Mysteries; 
each who came forth into the world to 
speak of the invisible worlds had passed 
through the portal of Initiation and had 
learned the secret of the Holy Ones from 
Their own lips : each who came forth came 
forth with the same story, and the solar 
myths are all versions of this story, identi- 
cal in their essential features, varying only 
in their local colour. 

This story is primarily that of the descent 
of the Logos into matter, and the Sun-God 
is aptly His symbol, since the Sun is His 
body, and He is often described as "He 
that dwelleth in the Sun." In one aspect, 
the Christ of the Mysteries is the Logos 
descending into matter, and the great Sun- 
Myth is the popular teaching of this 

170 



The Mystic Christ 



sublime truth, As in previous cases, the 
Divine Teacher, who brought the Ancient 
Wisdom and republished it in the world, 
was regarded as a special manifestation of 
the Logos, and the Jesus of the Churches 
was gradually draped with the stories which 
belonged to this great One; thus He 
became identified , in Christian nomenclature, 
with the Second Person in the Trinity, the 
Logos, or Word of God, 1 and the salient 
events recounted in the myth of the Sun- 
God became the salient events of the story 
of Jesus, regarded as the incarnate Deity, 
the " mythic Christ." As in the macro- 
cosm, the kosmos, the Christ of the Myst- 
eries represents the Logos, the Second Person 
in the Trinity, so in the microcosm, man, 
does He represent the second aspect of the 
Divine Spirit in man — hence called in man 
"the Christ." 2 The second aspect of the 



1 See on this the opening of the Johannine Gospel, i. 1-5. 
The name Logos, ascribed to the manifested God, shaping 
matter — "all things were made by Him" — is Platonic, and 
is hence directly derived from the Mysteries ; ages before 
Plato, Vak, Voice, derived from the same source, was used 
among Hindus. 2 See Ante, p. 123. 

171 



Esoteric Christianity 



Christ of the Mysteries is then the life of 
the Initiate, the life which is entered on at 
the first great Initiation, at which the 
Christ is born in man, and after which He 
develops in man. To make this quite in- 
telligible, we must consider the conditions 
imposed on the candidate for Initiation, and 
the nature of the Spirit in man. 

Only those could be recognised as candi- 
dates for Initiation who were already good 
as men count goodness, according to the 
strict measure of the law. Pure, holy, 
without defilement, clean from sin, living 
without transgression — such were some 
of the descriptive phrases used of them. 1 
Intelligent also must they be, of well- 
developed and well-trained minds. 2 The 
evolution carried on in the world life after 
life, developing and mastering the powers of 
the mind, the emotions, and the moral 
sense, learning through exoteric religions, 
practising the discharge of duties, seeking to 
help and lift others — all this belongs to the 
ordinary life of an evolving man. When 



1 See Ante, pp. 92-93. 2 See Ante, p. 84. 

172 



The Mystic Christ 



all this is done, the man has become "a 
good man," the Chrestos of the Greeks, and 
this he must be ere he can become the 
Christos, the Annointed. Having accom- 
plished the exoteric good life, he becomes a 
candidate for the esoteric life, and enters on 
the preparation for Initiation, which con- 
sists in the fulfilment of certain conditions. 

These conditions mark out the attributes 
he is to acquire, and while he is labouring 
to create these, he is sometimes said to be 
treading the Probationary Path, the Path 
which leads up to the "Strait Gate," be- 
yond which is the "Narrow Way," or the 
"Path of Holiness," the "Way of the 
Cross." He is not expected to develop 
these attributes perfectly, but he must 
have made some progress in all of them, ere 
the Christ can be born in him. He must 
prepare a pure home for that Divine Child 
who is to develop within him. 

The first of these attributes — they are 
all mental and moral — is Discrimination] 
this means that the aspirant must begin to 
separate in his mind the Eternal from the 
Temporary, the Real from the Unreal, the 
173 



Esoteric Christianity 



True from the False, the Heavenly from 
the Earthly. "The things which are seen 
are temporal," says the Apostle; "but the 
things which are not seen are eternal.' 51 
Men are constantly living under the 
glamour of the seen, and are blinded by it to 
the unseen. The aspirant must learn to dis- 
criminate between them, so that what is 
unreal to the world may become real to him, 
and that which is real to the world may to 
him become unreal, for thus only is it poss- 
ible to " walk by faith, not by sight." 2 And 
thus also must a man become one of those 
of whom the Apostle says that they "are of 
full age, even those who by reason of use 
have their senses exercised to discern both 
good and evil." 3 Next, this sense of un- 
reality must breed in him Disgust with the 
unreal and the fleeting, the mere husks of 
life, unfit to satisfy hunger, save the hunger 
of swine. 4 This stage is described in the 
emphatic language of Jesus: "If any man 
come to me, and hate not his father, and 
mother, and wife, and children, and breth- 



1 II. Cor. iv. 18. 2 II. Cor. v. 7. 

3 Heb. v. 14. 4 S. Luke xv. 16. 

174 



The Mystic Christ 



ren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, 
he cannot be my disciple." 1 Truly a "hard 
saying," and yet out of this hatred will 
spring a deeper, truer, love, and the stage 
may not be escaped on the way to the Strait 
Gate. Then the aspirant must learn Con- 
trol of thoughts, and this will lead to Con- 
trol of actions, the thought being, to the 
inner eye, the same as the action : "Whoso- 
ever looketh on a woman to lust after her, 
hath committed adultery with her already 
in his heart." 2 He must acquire Endu- 
rance, for they who aspire to tread "the 
Way of the Cross " will have to brave long 
and bitter sufferings, and they must be able 
to endure, "as seeing Him who is invisi- 
ble." 3 He must add to these Tolerance, if 
he would be the child of Him who "maketh 
His sun to rise on the evil, and on the good, 
and sendeth rain on the just and on the un- 
just," 4 the disciple of Him who bade His 
apostles not to forbid a man to use His 
name because he did not follow with them. 5 
Further, he must acquire the Faith to 

l IMd., xiv. 26. 2 S. Matt. v. 28. 3 Heb. xi. 27. 
4 S. Matt. v. 45. 5 S. Luke ix. 49, 50. 

175 



Esoteric Christianity 



which nothing is impossible, 1 and the Bal- 
ance which is described by the Apostle. 2 
Lastly, he must seek only " those things 
which are above," 3 and long to reach the 
beatitude of the vision of and union with 
God. 4 When a man has wrought these 
qualities into his character he is regarded as 
fit for Initiation, and the Guardians of the 
Mysteries will open for him the Strait Gate. 
Thus, but thus only, he becomes the pre- 
pared candidate. 

Now, the Spirit in man is the gift of the 
Supreme God, and contains within itself 
the three aspects of the Divine Life — Intel- 
ligence, Love, Will — being the Image of 
God. As it evolves, it first develops the 
aspect of Intelligence, develops the intellect, 
and this evolution is effected in the ordi- 
nary life in the world. To have done this 
to a high point, accompanying it with moral 
development, brings the evolving man to 
the condition of the candidate. The second 
aspect of the Spirit is that of Love, and the 



*S. Matt. xvii. 20. 2 II. Cor. vi. 8-10. 3 Col. iii. 1. 
4 S. Matt. v. 8, and S. John xvii. 21. 
176 



The Mystic Christ 

J 



evolution of that is the evolution of the 
Christ. In the true Mysteries this evolution 
is undergone — the disciple's life is the Mys- 
tery Drama, and the Great Initiations mark 
its stages. In the Mysteries performed on 
the physical plane these used to be dramati- 
cally represented, and the ceremonies fol- 
lowed in many respects "the pattern " ever 
shown forth "on the Mount," for they were 
the shadows in a deteriorating age of the 
mighty Eealities in the spiritual world. 

The Mystic Christ, then, is twofold — the 
Logos, the Second Person of the Trinity, 
descending into matter, and the Love, or 
second, aspect of the unfolding Divine Spirit 
in man. The one represents kosmic pro- 
cesses carried on in the past and is the root 
of the Solar Myth ; the other represents a 
process carried on in the individual, the 
concluding stage of his human evolution, 
and added many details in the Myth. Both 
of these have contributed to the Gospel story, 
and together form the Image of the "Mys- 
tic Christ." 

Let us consider first the kosmic Christ, 
Deity becoming enveloped in matter, the 
12 177 

3^T 



Esoteric Christianity 



becoming incarnate of the Logos, the cloth- 
ing of God in "flesh." 

When the matter which is to form our 
solar system is separated off from the infin- 
ite ocean of matter which fills space, the 
Third Person of the Trinity — the Holy Spirit 
• — pours His Life into this matter to vivify 
it, that it may presently take form. It is 
then drawn together, and form is given to 
it by the life of the Logos, the Second Per- 
son of the Trinity, who sacrifices Himself by 
putting on the limitations of matter, becom- 
ing the "Heavenly Man," in whose Body all 
forms exist, of whose Body all forms are 
part. This was the kosmic story, dramat- 
ically shown in the Mysteries — in the true 
Mysteries seen as it occurred in space, in the 
physical plane Mysteries represented by 
magical or other means, and in some parts 
by actors. 

These processes are very distinctly stated 
in the Bible; when the "Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters " in the 
darkness that was "upon the face of the 
deep," 1 the great deep of matter showed no 

1 Gen. i. 2. 
178 



The Mystic Christ 



forms, it was void, inchoate. Form was 
given by the Logos, the Word, of whom it 
is written that "all things were made by 
Him; and without Him was not anything 
made that was made." 1 C. W. Leadbeater 
has well put it: "The result of this first 
great outpouring [the ' moving ' of the Spir- 
it] is the quickening of that wonderful and 
glorious vitality which pervades all matter 
(inert though it may seem to our dim physi- 
cal eyes), so that the atoms of the various 
planes develop, when electrified by it, all 
sorts of previously latent attractions and re 
pulsions, and enter into combinations of all 
kinds." 2 

Only when this work of the Spirit has 
been done can the Logos, the kosmic Mystic 
Christ, take on Himself the clothing of mat- 
ter, entering in very truth the Virgin's 
womb, the womb of Matter as yet virgin, 
unproductive. This matter had been vivi- 
fied by the Holy Spirit, who, overshadowing 

1 S. John i. 3. 

2 The Christian Creed, p. 29. This is a most valuable 
and fascinating little book, on the mystical meaning of 
the creeds. 

179 



Esoteric Christianity 



the Virgin, poured into it His life, thus pre- 
paring it to receive the life of the Second 
Logos, who took this matter as the vehicle 
for His energies. This is the becoming in- 
carnate of the Christ, the taking flesh — 
"Thou did'st not despise the Virgin's 
womb." 

In the Latin and English translations of 
the original Greek text of the Nicene 
Creed, the phrase which describes this phase 
of the descent has changed the prepositions 
and so changed the sense. The original 
ran: "and was incarnate of the Holy 
Ghost and the Virgin Mary," whereas the 
translation reads: "and was incarnate by 
the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary." 1 The 
Christ "takes form not of the ' Virgin ' 
matter alone, but of matter which is al- 
ready instinct and pulsating with the life of 
the Third Logos, 2 so that both the life and 
the matter surround Him as a vesture." 3 

This is the descent of the Logos into mat- 
ter, described as the birth of the Christ of 



1 Ibid., p. 42. 2 A name of the Holy Ghost. 

3 Ibid., p. 43. 
180 



The Mystic Christ 



a Virgin, and this, in the Solar Myth, be- 
comes the birth of the Sun-God as the sign 
Virgo rises. 

Then come the early workings of the 
Logos in matter, aptly typified by the in- 
fancy of the myth. To all the feebleness of 
infancy His majestic powers bow them- 
selves, letting but little play forth on the 
tender forms they ensoul. Matter impris- 
ons, seems as though threatening to slay, 
its infant King, whose glory is veiled by 
the limitations He has assumed. Slowly 
He shapes it towards high ends, and lifts it 
into manhood, and then stretches Himself 
on the cross of matter that He may pour 
forth from that cross all the powers of His 
surrendered life. This is the Logos of 
whom Plato said that He was in the fig- 
ure of a cross on the universe ; this is the 
Heavenly Man, standing in space, with arms 
outstretched in blessing; this is the Christ 
crucified, whose death on the cross of mat- 
ter fills all matter with His life. Dead He 
seems and buried out of sight, but He rises 
again clothed in the very matter in which 
He seemed to perish, and carries up His 
181 



Esoteric Christianity 



body of now radiant matter into heaven, 
where it receives the downpouring life 
of the Father, and becomes the vehicle of 
man's immortal life. For it is the life of 
the Logos which forms the garment of the 
Soul in man, and He gives it that men may- 
live through the ages and grow to the meas- 
\ ure of His own stature. Truly are we 
clothed in Him, first materially and then 
spiritually. He sacrificed Himself to bring 
many sons into glory, and He is with us 
always, even to the end of the age. 

The crucifixion of Christ, then, is part of 
the great kosmic sacrifice, and the allegori- 
cal representation of this in the physical 
Mysteries, and the sacred symbol of the 
crucified man in space, became materialised 
into an actual death by crucifixion, and a 
crucifix bearing a dying human form ; then 
this story, now the story of a man, was at- 
tached to the Divine Teacher, Jesus, and 
became the story of His physical death, 
while the birth from a Virgin, the danger- 
encircled infancy, the resurrection and as- 
cension, became also incidents in His human 
life. The Mysteries disappeared, but their 

182 



The Mystic Christ 



grandiose and graphic representations of the 
kosmic work of the Logos encircled and 
uplifted the beloved figure of the Teacher of 
Judaea, and the kosmic Christ of the Myste- 
ries, with the lineaments of the Jesus of 
history, thus became the central Figure of 
the Christian Church. 

But even this was not all ; the last touch 
of fascination is added to the Christ-story 
by the fact that there is another Christ of 
the Mysteries, close and dear to the human 
heart — the Christ of the human Spirit, the 
Christ who is in every one of us, is born and 
lives, is crucified, rises from the dead, and 
ascends into heaven, in every suffering 
and triumphant u Son of Man.' 5 

The life-story of every Initiate into the 
true, the heavenly Mysteries, is told in its 
salient features in the Gospel biography. 
For this reason, S. Paul speaks as we have 
seen 1 of the birth of the Christ in the disci- 
ple, and of His evolution and His full stat- 
ure therein. Every man is a potential 
Christ, and the unfolding of the Christ-life 



1 Ante, p. 123. 
183 



Esoteric Christianity 



in a mail follows the outline of the Gospel 
story in its striking incidents, which we have 
seen to be universal, and not particular. 

There are five great Initiations in the life 
of a Christ, each one marking a stage in 
the unfolding of the Life of Love. They 
are given now, as of old, and the last marks 
the final triumph of the Man who has de- 
veloped into Divinity, who has transcended 
humanity, and has become a Saviour of the 
world. 

Let us trace this life-story, ever newly re- 
peated in spiritual experience, and see the 
Initiate living out the life of the Christ. 

At the first great Initiation the Christ is 
born in the disciple ; it is then that he real- 
ises for the first time in himself the out- 
pouring of the divine Love, and experiences 
that marvellous change which makes him 
feel himself to be one with all that lives. 
This is the " Second Birth," and at that 
birth the heavenly ones rejoice, for he is 
born into "the kingdom of heaven," as one 
of the "little ones," as "a little child " — the 
names ever given to the new Initiates. 
Such is the meaning of the words of Jesus, 

184 



The Mystic Christ 



that a man must become a little child to 
enter into the Kingdom, 1 It is significantly 
said in some of the early Christian writers 
that Jesus was "born in a cave" — the 
"stable "of the gospel narrative; the "Cave 
of Initiation " is a well-known ancient 
phrase, and the Initiate is ever born there- 
in; over that cave, "where the young 
child " is, burns the "Star of Initiation," the 
Star that ever shines forth in the East when 
a Child-Christ is born. Every such child is 
surrounded by perils and menaces, strange 
dangers that befall not other babes ; for he 
is anointed with the chrism of the second 
birth and the Dark Powers of the unseen 
world ever seek his undoing. Despite all 
trials, however, he grows into manhood, for 
the Christ once born can never perish, the 
Christ once beginning to develop can never 
fail in his evolution ; his fair life expands 
and grows, ever increasing in wisdom and 
in spiritual stature, until the time comes 
for the second great Initiation, the Baptism 
of the Christ by Water and the Spirit, that 



1 S. Matt, xviii. 3. 
185 



Esoteric Christianity 



gives him the powers necessary for the 
Teacher, who is to go forth and labour in 
the w r orld as "the beloved Son." 

Then there descends upon him in rich 
measure the divine Spirit, and the glory of 
the unseen Father pours down its pure radi- 
ance on him; bat from that scene of bless- 
ing is he led by the Spirit into the wilder- 
ness and is once more exposed to the ordeal 
of fierce temptations. For now the powers 
of the Spirit are unfolding themselves in 
him, and the Dark Ones strive to lure him 
from his path by these very powers, bidding 
him use them for his own helping instead 
of resting on his Father in patient trust. 
In the swift, sudden transitions which 
test his strength and faith, the whisper of 
the embodied Tempter follows the voice of 
the Father, and the burning sands of the 
wilderness scorch the feet erstwhile laved 
in the cool waters of the holy river. Con- 
queror over these temptations he passes into 
the world of men to use for their helping 
the powers he would not put forth for his 
own needs, and he who would not turn one 
stone to bread for the stilling of his own 

ISO 



The Mystic Christ 



cravings feeds "five thousand men, besides 
women and children," with a few loaves. 

Into his life of ceaseless service comes an- 
other brief period of glory, when he ascends 
"a high mountain apart" — the sacred 
Mount of Initiation. There he is transfig- 
ured and there meets some of his great 
Forerunners, the Mighty Ones of old who 
trod where he now is treading. He passes 
thus the third great Initiation, and then 
the shadow of his coming Passion falls on 
him, and he steadfastly sets his face to go 
to Jerusalem — repelling the tempting words 
of one of his disciples — Jerusalem, where 
awaits him the baptism of the Holy Ghost 
and of Fire. After the Birth, the attack by 
Herod; after the Baptism, the temptation 
in the wilderness; after the Transfigura- 
tion, the setting forth towards the last 
stage of the Way of the Cross. Thus is 
triumph ever followed by ordeal, until 
the goal is reached. 

Still grows the life of love, ever fuller and 
more perfect, the Son of Man shining forth 
more clearly as the Son of God, until the 
time draws near for his final battle, and the 
187 



Esoteric Christianity 



fourth great Initiation leads him in tri- 
umph into Jerusalem, into sight of Geth- 
semane and Calvary. He is now the Christ 
ready to be offered, ready for the sacrifice 
on the cross. He is now to face the bitter 
agony in the Garden, where even his chosen 
ones sleep while he wrestles with his mortal 
anguish, and for a moment prays that the 
cup may pass from his lips ; but the strong 
will triumphs and he stretches out his hand 
to take and drink, and in his loneliness an 
angel comes to him and strengthens him, as 
angels are wont to do when they see a Son 
of Man bending beneath his load of agony. 
The drinking of the bitter cup of betrayal, 
of desertion, of denial, meets him as he 
goes forth, and alone amid his jeering foes 
he passes to his last fierce trial. Scourged 
by physical pain, pierced by cruel thorns of 
suspicion, stripped of his fair garments of 
purity in the eyes of the world, left in the 
hands of his foes, deserted apparently by 
God and man, he endures patiently all that 
befalls him, wistfully looking in his last ex- 
tremity for aid. Left still to suffer, cruci- 
fied, to die to the life of form, to surrender 

188 



The Mystic Christ 



all life that belongs to the lower world, sur- 
rounded by triumphant foes who mock him, 
the last horror of great darkness envelopes 
him, and in the darkness he meets all the 
forces of evil; his inner vision is blinded, he 
finds himself alone, utterly alone, till the 
strong heart, sinking in despair, cries out 
to the Father who seems to have abandoned 
him, and the human soul faces, in utter- 
most loneliness, the crushing agony of ap- 
parent defeat. Yet, summoning all the 
strength of the "unconquerable spirit," the 
lower life is yielded up, its death is willingly 
embraced, the body of desire is abandoned, 
and the Initiate "descends into hell," that 
no region of the universe he is to help may 
remain untrodden by him, that none may be 
too outcast to be reached by his all-em- 
bracing love. And then springing upwards 
from the darkness, he sees the light once 
more, feels himself again as the Son, insepar- 
able from the Father whose he is, rises to 
the life that knows no ending, radiant in 
the consciousness of death faced and over- 
come, strong to help to the uttermost every 
child of man, able to pour out his life into 

189 



Esoteric Christianity 



every struggling soul. Among his disciples 
he remains awhile to teach, unveiling to 
them the mysteries of the spiritual worlds, 
preparing them also to tread the path he 
has trodden, until, the earth -life over, he 
ascends to the Father, and, in the fifth 
great Initiation, becomes the Master trium- 
phant, the link between God and man. 

Such was the story lived through in the 
true Mysteries of old and now, and dramati- 
cally pourtrayed in symbols in the physical 
plane Mysteries, half veiled, half shown. 
Such is the Christ of the Mysteries in His 
dual aspect, Logos and man, kosmic and 
individual. Is it any wonder that this 
story, dimly felt, even when unknown, by 
the mystic, has woven itself into the heart, 
and served as an inspiration to all noble liv- 
ing? The Christ of the human heart is, for 
the most part, Jesus seen as the mystic 
human Christ, struggling, suffering, dying, 
finally triumphant, the Man in whom 
humanity is seen crucified and risen, whose 
victory is the promise of victory to every- 
one who, like Him, is faithful through 
death and beyond — the Christ who can 

190 



The Mystic Christ 

never be forgotten while He is born again 
and again in humanity, while the world 
needs Saviours, and Saviours give them- 
selves for men. 



191 



Chapter VII 

THE ATONEMENT 

We will now proceed to study certain 
aspects of the Christ-Life, as they appear 
among the doctrines of Christianity. In 
the exoteric teachings they appear as at- 
tached only to the Person of the Christ ; in 
the esoteric they are seen as belonging in- 
deed to Him, since in their primary, their 
fullest and deepest meaning they form part 
of the activities of the Logos, but as being 
only secondarily reflected in the Christ, and 
therefore also in every Christ-Soul that 
treads the way of the Cross. Thus studied 
they will be seen to be profoundly true, 
while in their exoteric form the} 7 often be- 
wilder the intelligence and jar the emotions. 

Among these stands prominently forward 
the doctrine of the Atonement; not only has 
it been a point of bitter attack from those 
outside the pale of Christianity, but it has 
wrung many sensitive consciences within 

192 



The Atonement 



that pale. Some of the most deeply Chris- 
tian thinkers of the last half of the nine- 
teenth century have been tortured with 
doubts as to the teaching of the churches on 
this matter, and have striven to see, and to 
present it, in a way that softens or explains 
away the cruder notions based on an unin- 
telligent reading of a few profoundly mysti- 
cal texts. Nowhere, perhaps, more than in 
connection with these should the warning 
of S. Peter be borne in mind: "Our beloved 
brother Paul also, according to the wisdom 
given unto him, hath written unto you — as 
also in all his epistles — speaking in them of 
these things; in which are some things 
hard to be understood, which they that are 
unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do 
also the other scriptures, unto their own de- 
struction. " 1 For the texts that tell of the 
identity of the Christ with His brother-men 
have been wrested into a legal substitution 
of Himself for them, and have thus been 
used as an escape from the results of sin, in- 
stead of as an inspiration to righteousness. 



1 2 S. Peter iii. 15, 16. 
13 193 



Esoteric Christianity 



The general teaching in the Early Church 
on the doctrine of the Atonement was that 
Christ, as the Eepresentative of Humanity, 
faced and conquered Satan, the represent- 
ative of the Dark Powers, who held humanity 
in bondage, wrested his captive from him, 
and set him free. Slowly, as Christian 
teachers lost touch with spiritual truths, and 
they reflected their own increasing intoler- 
ance and harshness on the pure and loving 
Father of the teachings of the Christ, they 
represented Him as angry with man, and the 
Christ was made to save man from the wrath 
of God instead of from the bondage of evil. 
Then legal phrases intruded, still further 
materialising the once spiritual idea, and the 
"scheme of redemption" was forensically 
outlined. " The seal w r as set on the 6 redemp- 
tion scheme ' by Anselm in his great work, 
Cur Deus Homo, and the doctrine which had 
been slowly growing into the theology of 
Christendom was thenceforward stamped 
with the signet of the Church. Eoman 
Catholics and Protestants, at the time of 
the Reformation, alike believed in the vicar- 
ious and substitutionary character of the 

194 



The Atonement 



atonement wrought by Christ. There is no 
dispute between them on this point. I pre- 
fer to allow the Christian divines to speak 
for themselves as to the character of 
the atonement. . . . Luther teaches that 
6 Christ did truly and effectually feel for all 
mankind the wrath of God, malediction, 
and death.' Flavel says that ' to wrath, to 
the wrath of an infinite God without mix- 
ture, to the very torments of hell, was 
Christ delivered, and that by the hand of 
his own father.' The Anglican homily 
preaches that ' sin did pluck God out of 
heaven to make him feel the horrors and 
pains of death,' and that man, being a fire- 
brand of hell and a bondsman of the devil, 
' was ransomed by the death of his only and 
well-beloved son ' ; the ' heat of his wrath,' 
6 his burning wrath,' could only be Opaci- 
fied ' by Jesus, ' so pleasant was. -the sacrifice 
and oblation of his son's death.' Edwards, 
being logical, saw that there was a gross in- 
justice in sin being twice punished, and in 
the pains of hell, the penalty of sin, being 
twice inflicted, first on Jesus, the substitute 
of mankind, and then on the lost, a portion 
195 



Esoteric Christianity 



of mankind; so he, in common with most 
Calvinists, finds himself compelled to restrict 
the atonement to the elect, and declared that 
Christ bore the sins, not of the world, but of 
the chosen out of the world; he suffers ' not 
for the world, but for them whom thou hast 
given me.' But Edwards adheres firmly to 
the belief in substitution, and rejects the 
universal atonement for the very reason that 
' to believe Christ died for all is the surest way 
of proving that he died for none in the sense 
Christians have hitherto believed. 5 He de- 
clares that ' Christ suffered the wrath of 
God for men's sins ' ; that ' God imposed his 
wrath due unto, and Christ underwent the 
pains of hell for,' sin. Owen regards 
Christ's sufferings as ' a full valuable com- 
pensation to the justice of God for all the 
sins ' of the elect, and says that he under- 
went ' that same punishment which . . . 
they themselves were bound to undergo.' 

To show that these views were still 
authoritatively taught in the churches, I 
wrote further: " Stroud makes Christ drink 



1 A. Besant. Essay on the Atonement. 
196 



The Atonement 



' the cup of the wrath of God. ' Jenkyn says 
i He suffered as one disowned and reprobated 
and forsaken of God.' Dwight considers 
that he endured God's 'hatred and con- 
tempt. 5 Bishop Jeune tells us that 6 after 
man had done his worst, worse remained 
for Christ to bear. He had fallen into his 
father's hands.' Archbishop Thomson 
preaches that ' the clouds of God's wrath 
gathered thick over the whole human race : 
they discharged themselves on Jesus only. ' 
He 6 becomes a curse for us and a vessel of 
wrath. ' Liddon echoes the same sentiment : 
' The apostles teach that mankind are slaves, 
and that Christ on the cross is paying their 
ransom. Christ crucified is voluntarily 
devoted and accursed ' ; he even speaks of 
' the precise amount of ignominy and pain 
needed for the redemption,' and says that 
the ' divine victim ' paid more than was 
absolutely necessary." 1 

These are the views against which the 
learned and deeply religious Dr. McLeod 
Campbell wrote his well-known work, On 
the Atonement, a, volume containing many 

1 Ibid. 
197 



Esoteric Christianity 



true and beautiful thoughts ; F. D. Maurice 
and many other Christian men have also 
striven to lift from Christianity the burden 
of a doctrine so destructive of all true ideas 
as to the relations between God and man. 

None the less, as we look backwards over 
the effects produced by this doctrine, we find 
that belief in it, even in its legal — and to 
us crude exoteric— form, is connected with 
some of the very highest developments of 
Christian conduct, and that some of the 
noblest examples of Christian manhood and 
womanhood have drawn from it their 
strength, their inspiration, and their com- 
fort. It would be unjust not to recognise 
this fact. And whenever we come upon a 
fact that seems to us startling and incon- 
gruous, we do well to pause upon that fact, 
and to endeavour to understand it. For if 
this doctrine contained nothing more than is 
seen in it by its assailants inside and outside 
the churches, if it were in its true meaning 
as repellent to the conscience and the intel- 
lect as it is found to be by many thoughtful 
Christians, then it could not possibly have 
exercised over the minds and hearts of men 

198 



The Atonement 



a compelling fascination, nor could it have 
been the root of heroic self-surrenders, of 
touching and pathetic examples of self- 
sacrifice in the service of man. Something 
more there must be in it than lies on the 
surface, some hidden kernel of life which 
has nourished those who have drawn from 
it their inspiration. In studying it as one 
of the Lesser Mysteries we shall find the 
hidden life which these noble ones have un- 
consciously absorbed, these souls which were 
so at one with that life that the form in 
which it was veiled could not repel them. 

When we come to study it as one of the 
Lesser Mysteries, we shall feel that for its 
understanding some spiritual development 
is needed, some opening of the inner eyes. 
To grasp it requires that its spirit should be 
partly evolved in the life, and only those 
who know practically something of the 
meaning of self -surrender will be able to 
catch a glimpse of what is implied in the 
esoteric teaching on this doctrine, as the 
typical manifestation of the Law of Sacrifice. 
We can only understand it as applied to the 
Christ, when we see it as a special manifest- 
199 



Esoteric Christianity 



aiion of the universal law, a reflection 
below of the Pattern above, showing us in 
a concrete human life what sacrifice means. 

The Law of Sacrifice underlies our system 
and all systems, and on it all universes are 
builded. It lies at the root of evolution, 
and alone makes it intelligible. In the doct- 
rine of the Atonement it takes a concrete 
form in connection with men who have 
reached a certain stage in spiritual develop- 
ment, the stage that enables them to realise 
their oneness with humanity, and to become, 
in very deed and truth, Saviours of men. ■ 

All the great religions of the world have 
declared that the universe begins' by an act 
of sacrifice, and have incorporated the idea 
of sacrifice into their most solemn rites. In 
Hinduism, the dawn of manifestation is said 
to be by sacrifice, 1 mankind is emanated 
with sacrifice, 2 and it is Deity who sacrifices 
Himself ; 3 the object of the sacrifice is mani- 
festation; He cannot become manifest un- 
less an act of sacrifice be performed, and in- 

1 Brihaddranyakopanisliai, X. i. 1. 

2 Bhagamd GUd, iii, 10. 

3 Briliaddranyalwpanisliat, I. ii. 7. 

200 



The Atonement 



asmuch as nothing can be manifest until He 
manifests/ the act of sacrifice is called "the 
dawn " of creation. 

In the Zoroastrian religion it was taught 
that in the Existence that is boundless, un- 
knowable, unnameable, sacrifice was per- 
formed and manifest Deity appeared ; Ahura- 
mazdao was born of an act of sacrifice. 2 

In the Christian religion the same idea is 
indicated in the phrase: "the Lamb slain 
from the foundation of the world," 3 slain at 
the origin of things. These words can but 
refer to the important truth that there can 
be no founding of a world until the Deity 
has made an act of sacrifice. This act is 
explained as limiting Himself in order to 
become manifest. "The Law of Sacrifice 
might perhaps more truly be called The Law 
of Manifestation, or the Law of Love and of 
Life, for throughout the universe, from the 
highest to the lowest, it is the cause of 
manifestation and life." 4 



1 MundakopanisJiat, II. ii. 10. 

2 Haug. Essays on the Parsis, pp. 12-14. 

3 Rev. xiii. 8. 

4 W. Williamson. The Great Law, p. 406. 
201 



Esoteric Christianity 



" Now, if we study this physical world, as 
being the most available material, we find 
that all life in it, all growth, all progress, 
alike for units and for aggregates, depend 
on continual sacrifice and the endurance 
of pain. Mineral is sacrificed to vegetable, 
vegetable to animal, both to man, men to 
men, and all the higher forms again break 
up, and reinforce again with their separated 
constituents the lowest kingdom. It is a 
continual sequence of sacrifices from the 
lowest to the highest, and the very mark of 
progress is that the sacrifice from being in- 
voluntary and imposed becomes voluntary 
and self-chosen, and those who are recog- 
nised as greatest by man's intellect and 
loved most by man's heart are the supreme 
sufferers, those heroic souls who wrought, 
endured, and died that the race might profit 
by their pain. If the world be the work of 
the Logos, and the law of the world's pro- 
gress in the whole and the parts is sacrifice, 
then the Law of Sacrifice must point to 
something in the very nature of the Logos ; 
it must have its root in the Divine Nature 

itself. A little further thought shows us 

202 



The Atonement 



that if there is to be a world, a universe at 
all, this can only be by the One Existence 
conditioning Itself and thus making mani- 
festation possible, and that the very Logos 
is the Self-limited God; limited to become 
manifest; manifested to bring a universe 
into being; such self-limitation and mani- 
festation can only be a supreme act of sacri- 
fice, and what wonder that on every hand 
the world should show its birth-mark, and 
that the Law of Sacrifice should be the law 
of being, the law of the derived lives. 

" Further, as it is an act of sacrifice in 
order that individuals may come into exist- 
ence to share the Divine bliss, it is very 
truly a vicarious act — an act done for the 
sake of others; hence the fact already noted, 
that progress is marked by sacrifice becom- 
ing voluntary and self-chosen, and we real- 
ise that humanity reaches its perfection in 
the man who gives himself for men, and by 
his own suffering purchases for the race 
some lofty good. 

"Here, in the highest regions, is the in- 
most verity of vicarious sacrifice, and how- 
ever it may be degraded and distorted, this 
203 



Esoteric Christianity 



inner spiritual truth makes it indestructible, 
eternal, and the fount whence flows the 
spiritual energy which, in manifold forms 
and ways, redeems the world from evil and 
draws it home to God." 1 

When the Logos comes forth from "the 
bosom of the Father" in that "Day" when 
He is said to be "begotten," 2 the dawn of 
the Day of Creation, of Manifestation, when 
by Him God "made the worlds," 3 He by His 
own will limits Himself, making as it were 
a sphere enclosing the Divine Life, coming 
forth as a radiant orb of Deity, the Divine 
Substance, Spirit within and limitation, or 
Matter, without. This is the veil of matter 
which makes possible the birth of the Logos, 
Mary, the World-Mother, necessary for the 
manifestation in time of the Eternal, that 
Deity may manifest for the building of the 
worlds. 

That circumscription, that self -limitation, 
is the act of sacrifice, a voluntary action done 
for love's sake, that other lives may be born 
from Him. Such a manifestation has been 

1 A. Besant. Nineteenth Century, June, 1895, " The 
Atonement." 2 Heb. i. 5. 3 Ibid. } 2. 

204 



The Atonement 



regarded as a death, for, in comparison with 
the unimaginable life of God in Himself, 
such circumscription in matter may truly be 
called death. It has been regarded, as we 
have seen, as a crucifixion in matter, and 
has been thus figured, the true origin of the 
symbol of the cross, whether in its so-called 
Greek form, wherein the vivifying of mat- 
ter by the Holy Ghost is signified, or in its 
so-called Latin, whereby the Heavenly Man 
is figured, the supernal Christ. 1 

"In tracing the symbolism of the Latin 
cross, or rather of the crucifix, back into the 
night of time, the investigators had expected 
to find the figure disappear, leaving behind 
what they supposed to be the earlier cross- 
emblem. As a matter of fact exactly the 
reverse took place, and they were startled to 
find that eventually the cross drops away, 
leaving only the figure with uplifted arms, 
No longer is there any thought of pain or 
sorrow connected with that figure, though 
still it tells of sacrifice ; rather is it now the 
symbol of the purest joy the world can hold 



1 C. W. Leadbeater, The Christian Creed, pp. 54-56. 
205 



Esoteric Christianity 



— the joy of freely giving — for it typifies 
the Divine Man standing in space with arms 
upraised in blessing, casting abroad His 
gifts to all humanity, pouring forth freely 
of Himself in all directions, descending into 
that ' dense sea ' of matter, to be cribbed, 
cabined, and confined therein, in order that 
through that descent we may come into 
being." 1 

This sacrifice is perpetual, for in every 
form in this universe of infinite diversity 
this life is enfolded, and is its very heart, 
the " Heart of Silence " of the Egyptian 
ritual, the " Hidden God." This sacrifice is 
the secret of evolution. The Divine Life, 
cabined within a form, ever presses out- 
wards in order that the form may expand, 
but presses gently, lest the form should 
break ere yet it had reached its utmost limit 
of expansion. With infinite patience and 
tact and discretion, the divine One keeps up 
the constant pressure that expands, without 
loosing a force that would disrupt. In 
every form, in mineral, in vegetable, in ani- 
mal, in man, this expansive energy of the 

l IUd. t pp. 56, 57. 
206 



The Atonement 



Logos is ceaselessly working. That is the 
evolutionary force, the lifting life within 
the forms, the rising energy that science 
glimpses, but knows not whence it comes. 
The botanist tells of an energy within the 
plant, that pulls ever upwards; he knows 
not how, he knows not why, but he gives it 
a name — the vis a f route — because he finds 
it there, or rather finds its results. Just as 
it is in plant life, so is it in other forms as 
well, making them more and more express- 
ive of the life within them. When the 
limit of any form is reached, and it can 
grow no further, so that nothing more can 
be gained through it by the soul of it — that 
germ of Himself, which the Logos is brood- 
ing over — then He draws away His energy, 
and the form disintegrates — we call it death 
and decay. But the soul is with Him, and 
He shapes for it a new form, and the death 
of the form is the birth of the soul into fuller 
life. If we saw with the eyes of the Spirit 
instead of with the eyes of the flesh, w 7 e 
should not weep over a form, which is a 
corpse giving back the materials out of which 
it was builded, but we should joy over the 
207 



Esoteric Christianity 



life passing onwards into nobler form, to 
expand under the unchanging process the 
powers still latent within. 

Through that perpetual sacrifice of the 
Logos all lives exist ; it is the life by which 
the universe is ever becoming. This life is 
One, but it embodies itself in myriad forms, 
ever drawing them together and gently 
overcoming their resistance. Thus it is an 
At-one-ment, a unifying force, by which the 
separated lives are gradually made conscious 
of their unity, labouring to develop in each 
a self-consciousness, which shall at last 
know itself to be one with all others, and its 
root One and divine. 

This is the primary and ever-continued 
sacrifice, and it will be seen that it is an 
outpouring of Life directed by Love, a vol- 
untary and glad pouring forth of Self for 
the making of other Selves. This is "the 
joy of thy Lord " 1 into which the faithful 
servant enters, significantly followed by 
the statement that He was hungry, thirsty, 
naked, sick, a stranger and in prison, in the 



1 S. Matt. xxv. 21, 23, 31-45. 
208 



The Atonement 



helped or neglected children of men. To 
the free Spirit to give itself is joy, and it 
feels its life the more keenly, the more it 
pours itself forth. And the more it gives, 
the more it grows, for the law of the growth 
of life is that it increases by pouring itself 
forth and not by drawing from without — by 
giving, not by taking. Sacrifice, then, in 
its primary meaning, is a thing of joy ; the 
Logos pours Himself out to make a world, 
and, seeing the travail of His soul, is satis- 
fied. 1 

But the word has come to be associated 
with suffering, and in all religious rites of 
sacrifice some suffering, if only that of a 
trivial loss to the sacrificer, is present. It is 
well to understand how this change has 
come about, so that when the word " sacri- 
fice "is used the instinctive connotation is 
one of pain. 

The explanation is seen when we turn 
from the manifesting Life to the forms in 
which it is embodied, and look at the ques- 
tion of sacrifice from the side of the forms. 
While the life of Life is in giving, the life, 



14 



1 Is. liii. 11. 
209 



Esoteric Christianity 



or persistence, of form is in taking, for the 
form is wasted as it is exercised, it is dimin- 
ished as it is exerted. If the form is to con- 
tinue, it must draw fresh material from 
outside itself in order to repair its losses, 
else will it waste and vanish away. The 
form must grasp, keep, build into itself 
what it has grasped, else it cannot persist; 
and the law of growth of the form is to take 
and assimilate that which the wider uni- 
verse supplies. As the consciousness identi- 
fies itself with the form, regarding the form 
as itself, sacrifice takes on a painful aspect ; 
to give, to surrender, to lose what has been 
acquired, is felt to undermine the persistence 
of the form, and thus the Law of Sacrifice 
becomes a law of pain instead of a law of 
joy. 

Man had to learn by the constant break- 
ing up of forms, and the pain involved in 
the breaking, that he must not identify 
himself with the wasting and changing 
forms, but with the growing persistent life, 
and he was taught his lesson not only by ex- 
ternal nature, but by the deliberate lessons 
of the Teachers who gave him religions. 

210 



The Atonement 



We can trace in the religions of the world 
four great stages of instruction in the Law 
of Sacrifice. First, man was taught to sac- 
rifice part of his material possession in order 
to gain increased material prosperity, and 
sacrifices were made in charity to men and 
in offerings to Deities, as we may read in 
the scriptures of the Hindus, the Zoroas- 
trians, the Hebrews, indeed all the world 
over. The man gave up something he 
valued to insure future prosperity to him- 
self, his family, his community, his nation. 
He sacrificed in the present to gain in the 
future. Secondly, came a lesson a little 
harder to learn ; instead of physical prosper- 
ity and worldly good, the fruit to be gained 
by sacrifice was celestial bliss. Heaven was 
to be won, happiness was to be enjoyed on 
the other side of death — such was the re- 
ward for sacrifices made during the life led 
on earth. 

A considerable step forward was made 
when a man learned to give up the things 
for which his body craved for the sake of a 
distant good which he could not see nor 
demonstrate. He learned to surrender the 
211 



Esoteric Christianity 



visible for the invisible, and in so doing; rose 
in the scale of being; for so great is the 
fascination of the visible and the tangible, 
that if a man be able to surrender them for 
the sake of an unseen world in which he 
believes, he has acquired much strength and 
has made a long step towards the realisation 
of that unseen world. Over and over again 
martyrdom has been endured, obloquy has 
been faced, man has learned to stand alone, 
bearing all that his race could pour upon 
him of pain, misery, and shame, looking to 
that which is beyond the grave. True, 
there still remains in this a longing for 
celestial glory, but it is no small thing to 
be able to stand alone on earth and rest 
on spiritual companionship, to cling firmly 
to the inner life when the outer is all torture. 

The third lesson came when a man, seeing 
himself as part of a greater life, was willing 
to sacrifice himself for the good of the whole, 
and so became strong enough to recognise 
that sacrifice was right, that a part, a frag- 
ment, a unit in the sum total of life, should 
subordinate the part to the whole, the frag- 
ment to the totality. Then he learned to 

212 



The Atonement 



do right, without being affected by the out- 
come to his own person, to do duty, without 
wishing for result to himself, to endure 
because endurance was right not because it 
would be crowned, to give because gifts 
were due to humanity not because they 
would be repaid by the Lord. The hero- 
soul thus trained was ready for the fourth 
lesson: that sacrifice of all the separated 
fragment possesses is to be offered because 
the Spirit is not really separate but is part 
of the divine Life, and knowing no differ- 
ence, feeling no separation, the man pours 
himself forth as part of the Life Universal, 
and in the expression of that Life he shares 
the joy of his Lord. 

It is in the three earlier stages that the 
pain-aspect of sacrifice is seen. The first 
meets but small sufferings; in the second 
the physical life and all that earth has to 
give may be sacrificed ; the third is the 
great time of testing, of trying, of the 
growth and evolution of the human soul. 
For in that stage duty may demand all in 
which life seems to consist, and the man, 
still identified in feeling with the form, 
213 



Esoteric Christianity 



though knowing himself theoretically to 
transcend it, finds that all he feels as life is 
demanded of him, and questions: "If I let 
this go, what then will remain ? " It seems as 
though consciousness itself would cease with 
this surrender, for it must loose its hold on 
all it realises, and it sees nothing to grasp 
on the other side. An over-mastering con- 
viction, an imperious voice, call on him to 
surrender his very life. If he shrinks back, 
he must go on in the life of sensation, the 
life of the intellect, the life of the world, 
and as he has the joys he dared not resign, 
he finds a constant dissatisfaction, a con- 
stant craving, a constant regret and lack of 
pleasure in the world, and he realises the 
truth of the saying of the Christ, that "he 
that will save his life shall lose it,' 51 and 
that the life that was loved and clung to is 
only lost at last. Whereas if he risks all in 
obedience to the voice that summons, if he 
throws away his life, then in losing it, he 
finds it unto life eternal, 2 and he discovers 
that the life he surrendered was only death 



1 S. Matt. xvi. 25. 2 S John xii, 25. 

214 



The Atonement 



in life, that all he gave up was illusion, and 
that he found reality. In that choice the 
metal of the soul is proved, and only the 
pure gold comes forth from the fiery fur- 
nace, where life seemed to be surrendered 
but where life was won. And then follows 
the joyous discovery that the life thus won 
is won for all, not for the separated self, 
that the abandoning of the separated self 
has meant the realising of the Self in man, 
and that the resignation of the limit which 
alone seemed to make life possible has 
meant the pouring out into myriad forms, 
an undreamed vividness and fulness, "the 
power of an endless life." 1 

Such is an outline of the Law of Sacrifice, 
based on the primary Sacrifice of the Logos, 
that Sacrifice of which all other sacrifices 
are reflexions. 

We have seen how the man Jesus, the 
Hebrew disciple, laid down His body in glad 
surrender that a higher Life might descend 
and become embodied in the form He thus 
willingly sacrificed, and how by that act He 



1 Heb. vii. 16. 
215 



Esoteric Christianity 



became a Christ of full stature, to be the 
Guardian of Christianity, and to pour out 
His life into the great religion founded by 
the Mighty One with whom the sacrifice had 
identified Him. We have seen the Christ- 
Soul passing through the great Initiations- 
born as a little child, stepping down into the 
river of the world ? s sorrows, with the waters 
of which he must be baptised into his active 
ministry, transfigured on the Mount, led to 
the scene of his last combat, and triumphing 
over death. We have now to see in what 
sense he is an atonement, how in the Christ- 
life the Law of Sacrifice finds a perfect 
expression. 

The beginning of what may be called the 
ministry of the Christ come to manhood is 
in that intense and permanent sympathy 
with the world's sorrows which is typified 
by the stepping down into the river. From 
that time forward the life must be summed 
up in the phrase, "He went about doing 
good " ; for those who sacrifice the separated 
life to be a channel of the divine Life, can 
have no interest in this world save the help- 
ing of others. He learns to identify himself 

216 



The Atonement 



with the consciousness of those around him, 
to feel as they feel, think as they think, en- 
joy as they enjoy, suffer as they suffer, and 
thus he brings into his daily waking life 
that sense of unity with others which he 
experiences in the higher realms of being. 
He must develop a sympathy which vibrates 
in perfect harmony with the many-toned 
chord of human life, so that he may link in 
himself the human and the divine lives, and 
become a mediator between heaven and 
earth. 

Power is now manifested in him, for the 
Spirit is resting on him, and he begins to 
stand out in the eyes of men as one of those 
who are able to help their younger brethren 
to tread the path of life. As they gather 
round him, they feel the power that comes 
out from him, the divine Life in the accred- 
ited Son of the Highest. The souls that are 
hungry come to him and he feeds them with 
the bread of life ; the diseased with sin ap- 
proach him, and he heals them with the 
living word which cures the sickness and 
makes whole the soul ; the blind with ignor- 
ance draw nigh him, and he opens their eyes 
217 



Esoteric Christianity 



by the light of his wisdom. It is the chief 
mark in his ministry that the lowest and the 
poorest, the most desperate and the most de- 
graded, feel in approaching him no wall of 
separation, feel as they throng around him 
welcome and not repulsion ; for there radiates 
from him a love that understands and that 
can therefore never wish to repel. However 
low the soul may be, he never feels the 
Christ-Soul as standing above him but 
rather as standing beside him, treading with 
human feet the ground he also treads ; yet 
as filled with some strange uplifting power 
that raises him upwards and fills him also 
with new impulse and fresh inspiration. 

Thus he lives and labours, a true Saviour 
of men, until the time comes when he must 
learn another lesson, losing for awhile his 
consciousness of that divine Life of which 
his own has been becoming ever more and 
more the expression. And this lesson is 
that the true centre of divine Life lies with- 
in and not without. The Self has its centre 
within each human soul — truly is "the cen- 
tre everywhere," for Christ is in all, and 
God in Christ — and no embodied life, no- 




The Atonement 



thing " out of the Eternal "'can help him 
in his direst need. He has to learn that the 
true unity of Father and Son is to be found 
within and not without, and this lesson can 
only come in uttermost isolation, when he 
feels forsaken by the God outside himself. 
As this trial approaches, he cries out to 
those who are nearest to him to watch with 
him through his hour of darkness; and 
then, by the breaking of every human sym- 
pathy, the failing of every human love, he 
finds himself thrown back on the life of the 
divine Spirit, and cries out to his Father, 
feeling himself in conscious union with 
Him, that the cup may pass away. Having 
stood alone, save for that divine Helper, he 
is worthy to face the last ordeal, where the 
God without him vanishes, and only the God 
within is left. "My God, my God, wh} r 
hast Thou forsaken me?" rings out the 
bitter cry of startled love and fear. The last 
loneliness descends on him, and he feels 
himself forsaken and alone. Yet never is 
the Father nearer to the Son than at the 



1 Light on the Path, § 8. 
219 



Esoteric Christianity 



moment when the Christ-Soul feels himself 
forsaken, for as he thus touches the lowest 
depth of sorrow, the hour of his triumph 
begins to dawn. For now he learns that he 
must himself become the God to whom he 
cries, and by feeling the last pang of separ- 
ation he finds the eternal unity, he feels the 
fount of life is within, and knows himself 
eternal. 

None can become fully a Saviour of men 
nor sympathise perfectly with all human 
suffering, unless he has faced and conquered 
pain and fear and death unaided, save by 
the aid he draws from the God within him. 
It is easy to suffer when there is unbroken 
consciousness between the higher and the 
lower; nay, suffering is not, while that con- 
sciousness remains unbroken, for the light 
of the higher makes darkness in the lower 
impossible, and pain is not pain when borne 
in the smile of God. There is a suffering 
that men have to face, that every Saviour 
of man must face, where darkness is on the 
human consciousness, and never a glimmer 
of light comes through ; he must know the 
pang of the despair felt by the human soul 

220 



The Atonement 



when there is darkness on every side, and 
the groping consciousness cannot find a 
hand to clasD. Into that darkness every 
Son of Man goes down, ere he rises 
triumphant; that bitterest experience is 
tasted by evefry Christ, ere he is "able to 
save them to the uttermost " 1 who seek the 
Divine through him. 

Such a one has become truly divine, a 
Saviour of men, and he takes up the world- 
work for which all this has been the prepar- 
ation. Into him must pour all the forces 
that make against man, in order that in 
him they may be changed into forces that 
help. Thus he becomes one of the Peace- 
centres of the world, which transmute the 
forces of combat that would otherwise crush 
man. For the Chris ts of the world are 
these Peace-centres into which pour all 
warring forces, to be changed within them 
and then poured out as forces that work for 
harmony. 

Part of the sufferings of the Christ not 
yet perfect lies in this harmonising of the 



1 Heb. vii. 25. 
221 



Esoteric Christianity 



discord -making forces in the world. Al- 
though a Son, he yet learns by suffering 
and is thus "made perfect." 1 Humanity 
would be far more full of combat and rent 
with strife were it not for the Christ-dis- 
ciples living in its midst, and harmonising 
many of the warring forces into peace. 

When it is said that the Christ suffers 
"for men," that His strength replaces their 
weakness, His purity their sin, His wisdom 
their ignorance, a truth is spoken ; for the 
Christ so becomes one with men that they 
share with Him and He with them. There 
is no substitution of Him for them, but the 
taking of their lives into His, and the pour- 
ing of His life into theirs. For, having 
risen to the plane of unity, He is able to 
share all He has gained, to give all He has 
won. Standing above the plane of separate- 
ness and looking down at the souls immersed 
in separateness, He can reach each while 
they cannot reach each other. Water can 
flow from above into many pipes, open to 
the reservoir though closed as regards each 



1 Heb. v. 8, 9. 

222. 



The Atonement 



other, and so He can send His life into each 
soul. Only one condition is needed in order 
that a Christ may share His strength with 
a younger brother : that in the separated life 
the human consciousness will open itself to 
the divine, will show itself receptive of the 
offered life, and take the freely outpoured 
gift. For so reverent is God to that Spirit 
which is Himself in man, that He will not 
even pour into the human soul a flood of 
strength and life unless that soul is willing 
to receive it. There must be an opening 
from below as well as an outpouring from 
above, the receptiveness of the lower nature 
as well as the willingness of the higher to 
give. That is the link between the Christ 
and the man; that is what the churches 
have called the outpouring of " divine 
grace"; that is what is meant by the 
" faith " necessary to make the grace effec- 
tive. As Giordano Bruno once put it — the 
human soul has windows, and can shut 
those windows close. The sun outside is 
shining, the light is unchanging; let the 
windows be opened and the sunlight must 
stream in. The light of God is beating 



Esoteric Christianity 



against the windows of every human soul, 
and when the windows are thrown open, 
the soul becomes illuminated. There is no 
change in God, but there is a change in 
man; and man's will may not be forced, 
else were the divine Life in him blocked in 
its due evolution. 

Thus in every Christ that rises, all 
humanity is lifted a step higher, and by 
His wisdom the ignorance of the whole world 
is lessened. Each man is less weak because 
of His strength, which pours out over all 
humanity and enters the separated soul. 
Out of that doctrine, seen narrowly, and 
therefore mis-seen, grew the idea of the 
vicarious Atonement as a legal trans- 
action between God and man, in which Jesus 
took the place of the sinner. It was not- 
understood that One who had touched that 
height was verily one with all His brethren ; 
identity of nature was mistaken for a 
personal substitution, and thus the spirit- 
ual truth was lost in the harshness of a 
judicial exchange. 

" Then he comes to a knowledge of his 
place in the world, of his function in nature 

224 



The Atonement 



— to be a Saviour and to make atonement 
for the sins of the people. He stands in the 
inner Heart of the world, the Holy of 
Holies, as a High Priest of Humanity. He 
is one with all his brethren, not by a vicar- 
ious substitution, but by the unity of a com- 
mon life. Is any sinful? he is sinful in 
them, that his purity may purge them. Is 
any sorrowful? in them he is the man of 
sorrows; every broken heart breaks his, in 
every pierced heart his heart is pierced. Is 
any glad? in them he is joyous, and pours 
out his bliss. Is any craving? in them he is 
feeling want that he may fill them with his 
utter satisfaction. He has everything, and 
because it is his it is theirs. He is perfect ; 
then they are perfect with him. He is 
strong ; who then can be weak, since he is in 
them? He climbed to his high place that 
he might pour out to all below him, and he 
lives in order that all may share his life. 
He lifts the whole world with him as he 
rises, the path is easier for all men, because 
he has trodden it. 

" Every son of man may become such a 
manifested Son of God, such a Saviour of the 
15 225 



Esoteric Christianity 



world. In each such Son is 6 God manifest 
in the flesh, ' 1 the atonement that aids all 
mankind, the living power that makes all 
things new. Only one thing is needed to 
bring that power into manifested activity in 
any individual soul ; the soul must open the 
door and let Him in. Even He, all-per- 
meating, cannot force His way against His 
brother's will; the human will can hold its 
own alike against God and man, and by the 
law of evolution it must voluntarily associ- 
ate itself with divine action, and not be 
broken into sullen submission. Let the will 
throw open the door, and the life will flood 
the soul. While the door is closed it will 
only gently breathe through it its unutter- 
able fragrance, that the sweetness of that 
fragrance may win, where the barrier may 
not be forced by strength. 

"This it is, in part, to be a Christ; but 
how can mortal pen mirror the immortal, or 
mortal words tell of that which is beyond 
the power of speech? Tongue may not ut- 
ter, the unillumined mind may not grasp, 
that mystery of the Son who has become 

1 1 Tim. iii. 16. 
226 



The Atonement 



one with the Father, carrying in His bosom 
the sons of men." 1 

Those who would prepare to rise to such 
a life in the future must begin even now to 
tread in the lower life the path of the 
Shadow of the Cross. Nor should they 
doubt their power to rise, for to do so is to 
doubt the God within them. "Have faith 
in yourself," is one of the lessons that comes 
from the higher view of man, for that faith 
is really in the God within. There is a way 
by which the shadow of the Christ-life may 
fall on the common life of man, and that is 
by doing every act as a sacrifice, not for 
what it will bring to the doer but for what 
it will bring to others, and, in the daily 
common life of small duties, petty actions, 
narrow interests, by changing the motive 
and thus changing all. Not one thing in 
the outer life need necessarily be varied ; in 
any life sacrifice may be offered, amid any 
surroundings God may be served. Evolv- 
ing spirituality is marked not by what a 
man does, but by how he does it ; not in the 

1 Annie Besant. Theosophical Review, Dec, 1898, pp. 
344, 345. 

227 



Esoteric Christianity 



circumstances, but in the attitude of a 
man towards them, lies the opportunity of 
growth. "And indeed this symbol of the 
cross may be to us as a touchstone to disting- 
uish the good from the evil in many of 
the difficulties of life. 6 Only those actions 
through which shines the light of the cross 
are worthy of the life of the disciple, ' says 
one of the verses in a book of occult max- 
ims; and it is interpreted to mean that all 
that the aspirant does should be prompted 
by the fervour of self-sacrificing love. The 
same thought appears in a later verse: 
6 When one enters the path, he lays his 
heart upon the cross; when the cross and 
the heart have become one, then hath he 
reached the goal.' So, perchance, we may 
measure our progress by watching whether 
selfishness or self-sacrifice is dominant in 
our lives." 1 

Every life which begins thus to shape 
itself is preparing the cave in which the 
Child -Christ shall be born, and the life shall 
become a constant at-one-ment, bringing 



1 C. W. Leadbeater. The Christian Creed, pp. 61, 62. 
228 



The Atonement 



the divine more and more into the human. 
Every such life shall grow into, the life of a 
"beloved Son," and shall have in it the 
glory of the Christ. Every man may work 
in that direction by making every act and 
power a sacrifice, until the gold is purged 
from the dross, and only the pure ore re- 
mains. 



229 



Chapter VIII 



EESUREECTION AND ASCENSION 

The doctrines of the Resurrection and 
Ascension of Christ also form part of the 
Lesser Mysteries, being integral portions of 
"The Solar Myth," and of the life-story of 
the Christ in man. 

As regards Christ Himself they have their 
historical basis in the facts of His continu- 
ing to teach His apostles after His physical 
death, and of His appearance in the Greater 
Mysteries as Hierophant after His direct in- 
structions had ceased, until Jesus took His 
place. In the mythic tales the resurrection 
of the hero and his glorification invariably 
formed the conclusion of his death-story; 
and in the Mysteries, the body of the candi- 
date was always thrown into a death-like 
trance, during which he, as a liberated soul, 
travelled through the invisible world, re- 
turning and reviving the body after three 

230 



Resurrection and Ascension 



days. And in the life-story of the individ- 
ual, who is becoming a Christ, we shall 
find, as we study it, that the dramas of the 
Resurrection and Ascension are repeated. 

But before we can intelligently follow 
that story, we must master the outlines 
of the human constitution, and understand 
the natural and spiritual bodies of man. 
" There is a natural body, and there is a 
spiritual body." 1 

There are still some uninstructed people 
who regard man as a mere duality, made 
up of "soul" and "body." Such people use 
the words "soul" and "spirit" as syno- 
nyms, and speak indifferently of "soul and 
body," or "spirit and body," meaning that 
man is composed of two constituents, one of 
which perishes at death, while the other sur- 
vives. For the very simple and ignorant 
this rough division is sufficient, but it will 
not enable us to understand the mysteries of 
the Eesurrection and Ascension. 

Every Christian who has made even a 
superficial study of the human constitution 
recognises in it three distinct constituents 



1 1 Cor. xv. 44. 
231 



Esoteric Christianity 



— Spirit, Soul, and Body. This division is 
sound, though needing further subdivision 
for more profound study, and it has been 
used by S. Paul in his prayer that "your 
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved 
blameless." 1 That threefold division is ac- 
cepted in Christian Theology. 

The Spirit itself is really a Trinity, the 
reflexion and image of the Supreme Trinity, 
and this we shall study in the following 
chapter. 2 The true man, the immortal, 
who is the Spirit, is the Trinity in man. 
This is life, consciousness, and to this the 
spiritual body belongs, each aspect of the 
Trinity having its own Body. The Soul is 
dual, and comprises the mind and the 
emotional nature, with its appropriate 
garments. And the Body is the material 
instrument of Spirit and Soul. In one 
Christian view of man he is a twelve-fold 
being, six modifications forming the spirit- 
ual man, and six the natural man ; accord- 
ing to another, he is divisible into fourteen, 
seven modifications of consciousness and 



- 1 Thess. v. 23. 



2 See Chapter IX., "The Trinity. 
232 



Resurrection and Ascension 



seven corresponding types of form. This 
latter view is practically identical with that 
studied by Mystics, and it is usually spoken 
of as seven -fold, because there are really 
seven divisions, each being two-fold, having 
a life-side and a form-side. 

These divisions and subdivisions are some- 
what confusing and perplexing to the dull, 
and hence Origen and Clement, as we have 
seen, 1 laid great stress on the need for in- 
telligence on the part of all who desired to 
become Gnostics. After all, those who find 
them troublesome can leave them on one 
side, without grudging them to the earnest 
student, who finds them not only illuminat- 
ive, but absolutely necessary to any clear 
understanding of the Mysteries of Life and 
Man. 

The word Body means a vehicle of con- 
sciousness, or an instrument of conscious- 
ness; that in which consciousness is carried 
about, as in a vehicle, or which conscious- 
ness uses to contact the external world, as a 
mechanic uses an instrument. Or, we may 



1 See Ante, pp. 83, 98, 99. 
233 




Esoteric Christianity 



liken it to a vessel, in which consciousness 
is held, as a jar holds liquid. It is a form 
used by a life, and we know nothing of con- 
sciousness save as connected with such 
forms. The form may be of rarest, sub- 
tlest, materials, may be so diaphanous that 
we are only conscious of the indwelling life ; 
still it is there, and it is composed of Matter. 
It may be so dense, that it hides the indwell- 
ing life, and we are conscious only of the 
form; still the life is there, and it is com- 
posed of the opposite of Matter— Spirit. 
The student must study and re-study this 
fundamental fact — the duality of all mani- 
fested existence, the inseparable co-existence 
of Spirit and Matter in a grain of dust, in 
the Logos, the God manifested. The idea 
must become part of him ; else must he give 
up the study of the Lesser Mj^steries. The 
Christ, as God and Man, only shows out on 
the kosmic scale the same fact of duality 
that is repeated everywhere in nature. On 
that original duality everything in the uni- 
verse is formed. 

Man has a " natural body," and this is 
made up of four different and separable por- 

234 



Resurrection and Ascension 



tions, and is subject to death. Two of 
these are composed of physical matter, and 
are never complete^ separated from each 
other until death, though a partial separa- 
tion may be caused by anaesthetics, or by 
disease. These two may be classed together 
as the Physical Body. In this the man 
carries on his conscious activities while 
he is awake ; speaking technically, it is his 
vehicle of consciousness in the physical world. 

The third portion is the Desire Body, so 
called because man's feeling and passional 
nature finds in this its special vehicle. In 
sleep the man leaves the physical body, and 
carries on his conscious activities in this, 
which functions in the invisible world clos- 
est to our visible earth. It is therefore his 
vehicle of consciousness in the lowest of the 
super-physical worlds, which is also the first 
world into which men pass at death. 

The fourth portion is the Mental Body, so 
called because man's intellectual nature, so 
far as it deals with the concrete, functions 
in this. It is his vehicle of consciousness in 
the second of the super-physical worlds, 
which is also the second, or lower heavenly 
235 



Esoteric Christianity 



world, into which men pass after death, 
when freed from the world alluded to in the 
preceding paragraph. 

These four portions of his encircling form, 
made up of the dual physical body, the de- 
sire body, and the mental body, form the 
natural body of which S. Paul speaks. 

This scientific analysis has fallen out of 
the ordinary Christian teaching, which is 
vague and confused on this matter. It is not 
that the churches have never possessed it ; 
on the contrary, this knowledge of the con- 
stitution of man formed part of the teach- 
ings in the Lesser Mysteries; the simple 
division into Spirit, Soul, and Body was 
exoteric, the first rough and ready division 
given as a foundation. The subdivision as 
regards the "Body " was made in the course 
of later instruction, as a preliminary to the 
training by which the instructor enabled his 
pupil to separate one vehicle from another, 
and to use each as a vehicle of consciousness 
in its appropriate region. 

This conception should be readily enough 
grasped. If a man wants to travel on the 
solid earthy he uses as his vehicle a carriage 

236 



Resurrection and Ascension 



or a train. If he wants to travel on the 
liquid seas, he changes his vehicle, and 
takes a ship. If he wants to travel in the 
air, he changes his vehicle again and uses a 
balloon. He is the same man throughout, 
but he is using three different vehicles, ac- 
cording to the kind of matter he wants to 
travel in. The analogy is rough and inade- 
quate, but it is not misleading. When a 
man is busy in the physical world, his vehi- 
cle is the physical body, and his conscious- 
ness works in and through that body. 
When he passes into the world beyond the 
physical, in sleep and at death, his vehicle 
is the desire body, and he may learn to use 
this consciously, as he uses the physical con- 
sciously. He already uses it unconsciously 
every day of his life when he is feeling and 
desiring, as w T ell as every night of his life. 
When he goes on into the heavenly world 
after death, his vehicle is the mental body, 
and this also he is daily using, when he is 
thinking, and there would be no thought in 
the brain were there none in the mental 
body. 

Man has farther " a spiritual body. " This 
237 



Esoteric Christianity 



is made up of three separable portions, each 
portion belonging to one of, and separating 
off, the three Persons in the Trinity of the 
human Spirit. S. Paul speaks of being 
"caught up to the third heaven," and of 
there hearing " unspeakable words which it 
is not lawful for a man to utter." 1 These 
different regions of the invisible supernal 
worlds are known to Initiates, and they are 
well aware that those who pass beyond the 
first heaven need the truly spiritual body as 
their vehicle, and that according to the de- 
velopment of its three divisions is the heaven 
into which they can penetrate. 

The lowest of these three divisions is 
usually called the Causal Body, for a reason 
that will be only fully assimilable by those 
who have studied the teaching of Ke- 
incarnation — taught in the Early Church — 
and who understand that human evolution 
needs very many successive lives on earth, 
ere the germinal soul of the savage can be- 
come the perfected soul of the Christ, and 
then, becoming perfect as the Father in 



1 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4. 
238 



Resurrection and Ascension 



Heaven, 1 can realise the union of the Son 
with the Father. 2 It is a body that lasts 
from life to life, and in it all memory of the 
past is stored. From it come forth the 
causes that build up the lower bodies. It 
is the receptacle of human experience, the 
treasure-house in which all we gather in our 
lives is stored up, the seat of Conscience, the 
wielder of the Will. 

The second of the three divisions of the 
spiritual body is spoken of by S. Paul in the 
significant words: " We have a building of 
God, an house not made with hands, eternal 
in the heavens. " 3 That is the Bliss Body, the 
glorified body of the Christ, "the Kesurrec- 
tion Body." It is not a body which is 
"made with hands," by the working of con- 
sciousness in the lower vehicles; it is not 
formed by experience, not builded out of 
the materials gathered by man in his long 
pilgrimage. It is a body which belongs to 
the Christ-life, the life of Initiation ; to the 
divine unfoldment in man ; it is builded of 
God, by the activity of the Spirit, and grows 



1 S. Matt. v. 48. 2 S. John xvii. 22, 28. 

3 2 Cor. v. 1. 
239 



Esoteric Christianity 



during the whole life or lives of the Initiate, 
only reaching its perfection at "the Resur- 
rection." 

The third division of the spiritual body is 
the fine film of subtle matter that separates 
off the individual Spirit as a Being, and yet 
permits the interpenetration of all by all, 
and is thus the expression of the funda- 
mental unity. In the day when the Son 
Himself shall "be subject unto Him that 
put all things under Him. that God may be 
all in all," 1 this film will be transcended, 
but for us it remains the highest division of 
the spiritual body, in which we ascend to 
the Father, and are united with Him. 

Christianity has always recognised the ex- 
istence of three worlds, or regions, through 
which a man passes; first, the physical 
world ; secondly, an intermediate state into 
which he passes at death; thirdly, the 
heavenly world. These three worlds are 
universally believed in by educated Christ- 
ians; only the uninstructed imagine that a 
man passes from his deathbed into the final 



1 1 Cor. xv. 28. 
240 



Resurrection and Ascension 

state of beatitude. But there is some dif- 
ference of opinion as to the nature of the 
intermediate world. The Roman Catholic 
names it Purgatory, and believes that every 
soul passes into it, save that of the Saint, 
the man who has reached perfection, or that 
of a man who has died in "mortal sin.' 5 
The great mass of humanity pass into a 
purifying region, wherein a man remains 
for a period varying in length according to 
the sins he has committed, only passing out 
of it into the heavenly world when he has 
become pure. The various communities 
that are called Protestant vary in their 
teachings as to details, and mostly repudiate 
the idea of post mortem purification ; but 
they agree broadly that there is an inter- 
mediate state, sometimes spoken of as 
"Paradise " or as a "waiting period." The 
heavenly world is almost universally, in 
modern Christendom, regarded as a final 
state, with no very definite or general idea 
as to its nature, or as to the progress or 
stationary condition of those attaining to 
it. In early Christianity this heaven was 
considered to be, as it really is, a stage in 
10 241 



Esoteric Christianity 



the progress of the soul, re-incarnation in 
one form or another, the pre-existence of 
the soul, being then very generally taught. 
The result was, of course, that the heavenly 
state was a temporary condition, though 
often a very prolonged one, lasting for "an 
age " — as stated in the Greek of the New 
Testament, the age being ended by the 
return of the man for the next stage of 
his continuing life and progress — and not 
"everlasting," as in the mistranslation of 
the English authorised version. 1 

In order to complete the outline necessary 
for the understanding of the Resurrection 
and Ascension, we must see how these vari- 
ous bodies are developed in the higher evo- 
lution. 

The physical body is in a constant state of 
flux, its minute particles being continually 
renewed, so that it is ever building; and as 



1 This mistranslation was a very natural one, as the 
translation was made in the seventeenth century, and all 
idea of the pre-existence of the soul and of its evolution 
had long faded out of Christendom, save in the teachings 
of a few sects regarded as heretical and persecuted by the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

242 



Resurrection and Ascension 



it is composed of the food we eat, the liquids 
we drink, the air we breathe, and particles 
drawn from our physical surroundings, both 
people and things, we can steadily purify it, 
by choosing its materials well, and thus 
make it an ever purer vehicle through which 
to act, receptive of subtler vibrations, re- 
sponsive to purer desires, to nobler and 
more elevated thoughts. For this reason 
all who aspired to attain to the Mysteries 
were subjected to rules of diet, ablution, 
&c, and were desired to be very careful as 
to the people with whom they associated, 
and the places to which they went. 

The desire body also changes, in similar 
fashion, but the materials for it are expelled 
and drawn in by the play of the desires, 
arising from the feelings, passions, and emo- 
tions. If these are coarse, the materials 
built into the desire body are also coarse, 
while as these are purified, the desire body 
grows subtle and becomes very sensitive to 
the higher influences. In proportion as a 
man dominates his lower nature, and be- 
comes unselfish in his wishes, feelings, and 
emotions, as he makes his love for those 
243 



Esoteric Christianity 



around him less selfish and grasping, he is 
purifying this higher vehicle of conscious- 
ness; the result is that when out of the 
body in sleep he has higher, purer, and 
more instructive experiences, and when he 
leaves the physical body at death, he passes 
swiftly through the intermediate state, the 
desire body disintegrating with great rapid- 
ity, and not delaying him in his onward 
journey. 

The mental body is similarly being built 
now, in this case by thoughts. It will be 
the vehicle of consciousness in the heavenly 
world, but is being built now by aspirations, 
by imagination, reason, judgment, artistic 
faculties, by the use of all the mental pow- 
ers. Such as the man makes it, so must he 
wear it, and the length and richness of his 
heavenly state depend on the kind of mental 
body he has built during his life on earth. 

As a man enters the higher evolution, this 
body comes into independent activity on this 
side of death, and he gradually becomes con- 
scious of his heavenly life, even amid the 
whirl of mundane existence. Then he be- 
comes "the Son of man which is in 

244 



Resurrection and Ascension 



heaven, 551 who can speak with the authority 
of knowledge on heavenly things. When 
the man begins to live the life of the Son, 
having passed on to the Path of Holiness, 
he lives in heaven while remaining on 
earth, coming into conscious possession and 
use of this heavenly body. And inasmuch 
as heaven is not far away from us, but sur- 
rounds us on every side, and we are only 
shut out from it by our incapacity to feel its 
vibrations, not by their absence; inasmuch 
as those vibrations are playing upon us 
at every moment of our lives; all that is 
needed to be in Heaven is to become con- 
scious of those vibrations. We become con- 
scious of them with the vitalising, the or- 
ganising, the evolution of this heavenly 
body, which, being builded out of the 
heavenly materials, answers to the vibra- 
tions of the matter of the heavenly world. 
Hence the "Son of man 55 is ever in heaven. 
But we know that the "Son of man 55 is a 
term applied to the Initiate, not to the 
Christ risen and glorified but to the Son 
while he is yet " being made perfect. 552 



1 S. John iii. 13. 2 Heb. v. 9. 

245 



Esoteric Christianity 



During the stages of evolution that lead 
up to and include the Probationary Path, 
the first division of the spiritual body — the 
Causal Body — develops rapidly, and ena- 
bles the man, after death, to rise into the 
second heaven. After the Second Birth, 
the birth of the Christ in man, begins the 
building of the Bliss Body "in the heav- 
ens." This is the body of the Christ, 
developing during the days of His service 
on earth, and, as it develops, the conscious- 
ness of the "Son of God" becomes more 
and more marked, and the coming union 
with the Father illuminates the unfolding 
Spirit. 

In the Christian Mysteries — as in the 
ancient Egyptian, Chaldsean, and others — 
there was an outer symbolism which ex- 
pressed the stages through which the man 
was passing. He was brought into the 
chamber of Initiation, and was stretched on 
the ground with his arms extended, some- 
times on a cross of wood, sometimes merely 
on the stone floor, in the posture of a cru- 
cified man. He was then touched with 
the thyrsus on the heart — the "spear" of 

246 



Resurrection and Ascension 



the crucifixion — and, leaving the body, he 
passed into the worlds beyond, the body fall- 
ing into a deep trance, the death of the cru- 
cified. The body was placed in a sarcopha- 
gus of stone, and there left, carefully 
guarded. Meanwhile the man himself was 
treading first the strange obscure regions 
called "the heart of the earth," and there- 
after the heavenly mount, where he put on 
the perfected bliss body, now fully organised 
as a vehicle of consciousness. In that he 
returned to the body of flesh, to re-animate 
it. The cross bearing that body, or the en- 
tranced amd rigid bod3 r , if no cross had been 
used, was lifted out of the sarcophagus and 
placed on a sloping surface, facing the east, 
ready for the rising of the sun on the third 
day. At the moment that the rays of the 
sun touched the face, the Christ, the per- 
fected Initiate or Master, re-entered the 
body, glorifying it by the bliss body He was 
wearing, changing the body of flesh by con- 
tact with the body of bliss, giving it new 
properties, new powers, new capacities, 
transmuting it into His own likeness. That 
was the Resurrection of the Christ, and 
247 



Esoteric Christianity 



thereafter the body of flesh itself was 
changed, and took on a new nature. 

This is why the sun has ever been taken 
as the symbol of the rising Christ, and why, 
in Easter hymns, there is constant reference 
to the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. 
So also is it written of the triumphant 
Christ : " I am He that liveth and was dead ; 
and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen ; 
and have the keys of hell and of death.' 51 
All the powers of the lower worlds have 
been taken under the dominion of the Son, 
who has triumphed gloriously; over Him 
death no more has power, "He holdeth life 
and death in His strong hand." 2 He is the 
risen Christ, the Christ triumphant. 

The Ascension of the Christ was the Mys- 
tery of the third part of the spiritual body, 
the putting on of the Vesture of Glory, pre- 
paratory to the union of the Son with the 
Father, of man with God, when the Spirit 
re-entered the glory it had "before the 
world was." 3 Then the triple Spirit be- 

1 Rev. i. 18. 

2 H. P. Blavatsky. The Voice of the Silence, p. 90, 5th 
Edition. 3 S. John xvii. 5. 

248 



Resurrection and Ascension 



comes one ; knows itself eternal, and the 
Hidden God is found. That is imaged in 
the doctrine of the Ascension, so far as the 
individual is concerned. 

The Ascension for humanity is when the 
whole race has attained the Christ condition, 
the state of the Son, and that Son becomes 
one with the Father, and God is all in all. 
That is the goal, prefigured in the triumph 
of the Initiate, but reached only when the 
human race is perfected, and when "the 
great orphan Humanity " is no longer an 
orphan, but consciously recognises itself as 
the Son of God. 

Thus studying the doctrines of the Atone- 
ment, the Eesurrection, and the Ascension, 
we reach the truths unfolded concerning 
them in the Lesser Mysteries, and we begin 
to understand the full truth of the apostolic 
teaching that Christ was not a unique per- 
sonality, but "the first fruits of them that 
slept," 1 and that every man was to become 
a Christ. Not then was the Christ regarded 
as an external Saviour, by whose imputed 
righteousness men were to be saved from 



1 1 Cor. xv. 20. 
249 



Esoteric Christianity 



divine wrath. There was current in the 
Church the glorious and inspiring teaching 
that He was but the first fruits of human- 
ity, the model that every man should repro- 
duce in himself, the life that all should 
share. The Initiates have ever been re- 
garded as these first fruits, the promise of a 
race made perfect. To the early Christian, 
Christ was the living symbol of his own di- 
vinity, the glorious fruit of the seed he bore 
in his own heart. Not to be saved by an 
external Christ, but to be glorified into an 
inner Christ, was the teaching of esoteric 
Christianity, of the Lesser Mysteries. The 
stage of discipleship was to pass into that 
of Sonship. The life of the Son was to be 
lived among men till it was closed by the 
Resurrection, and the glorified Christ be- 
came one of the perfected Saviours of the 
world. 

How far greater a Gospel than the one of 
modern days ! Placed beside that grandiose 
ideal of esoteric Christianity, the exoteric 
teaching of the churches seems narrow and 
poor indeed. 



250 



Chapter IX 



THE TEINITY 

All fruitful study of the Divine Existence 
must start from the affirmation that it is 
One. All the Sages have thus proclaimed 
It; every religion has thus affirmed It; 
every philosophy thus posits It — "One only 
without a second." 1 "Hear, Israel!" 
cried Moses, "The Lord our God is one 
Lord." 2 "To us there is but one God," 3 
declares S. Paul. "There is no God but 
God," affirms the founder of Islam, and 
makes the phrase the symbol of his faith. 
One Existence unbounded, known in Its ful- 
ness only to Itself — the word It seems more 
reverent and inclusive than He, and is 
therefore used. That is the Eternal Dark- 
ness, out of which is born the Light. 



1 Chhdndogyopanishat, VI. ii. 1. 

2 Deut. vi. 4. 3 1 Cor. viii. 6. 

251 



i 



Esoteric Christianity 



But as the Manifested God, the One 
appears as Three. A Trinity of Divine 
Beings, One as God, Three as manifested 
Powers. This also has ever been declared, 
and the truth is so vital in its relation to 
man and his evolution that it is one which 
ever forms an essential part of the Lesser 
Mysteries. 

Among the Hebrews, in consequence of 
their anthropomorphising tendencies, the 
doctrine was kept secret, but the Eabbis 
studied and worshipped the Ancient of Days, 
from whom came forth the Wisdom, from 
whom the Understanding — Kether, Choch- 
mah, Binah, these formed the Supreme 
Trinity, the shining forth in time of the 
One beyond time. The Book of the Wis- 
dom of Solomon refers to this teaching, 
making Wisdom a Being. " According to 
Maurice, 6 The first Sephira, who is denomin- 
ated Kether the Crown, Kadmon the pure 
Light, and En Soph the Infinite, 1 is the om- 
nipotent Father of the universe. . . . The 

1 An error : En, or Ain, Soph is not one of the Trinity, 
but the One Existence, manifested in the Three; nor is 
Kadmon, or Adam Kadmon, one Sephira, but their totality. 

252 



The Trinity 



second is the Chochmah, whom we have 
sufficiently proved, both from sacred and 
Rabbinical writings, to be the creative Wis- 
dom. The third is the Binah, or heavenly- 
Intelligence, whence the Egyptians had 
their Cneph, and Plato his Nous Demi- 
urges. He is the Holy Spirit who . . . per- 
vades, animates, and governs this boundless 
universe. ' 55 1 

The bearing of this doctrine on Christian 
teaching is indicated by Dean Milman in 
his History of Christianity. He says: 
"This Being [the Word or the Wisdom] was 
more or less distinctly impersonated, accord- 
ing to the more popular or more philosophic, 
the more material or the more abstract, 
notions of the age or people. This was 
the doctrine from the Ganges, or even the 
shores of the Yellow Sea, to the Ilissus ; it 
was the fundamental principle of the Indian 
religion and the Indian philosophy; it was 
the basis of Zoroastrianism ; it was pure 
Platonism ; it was the Platonic Judaism of 
the Alexandrian school. Many fine pass- 



1 Quoted in Williamson's The Great Law, pp. 201, 202. 
253 



Esoteric Christianity 

ages might be quoted from Philo on the 
impossibility that the first self-existing Be- 
ing should become cognisable to the sense 
of man; and even in Palestine, no doubt, 
John the Baptist and our Lord Himself 
spoke no new doctrine, but rather the com- 
mon sentiment of the more enlightened, 
when they declared 6 that no man had seen 
God at any time. ' In conformity with this 
principle the Jews, in the interpretation of 
the older Scriptures, instead of direct and 
sensible communication from the one great 
Deity, had interposed either one or more in- 
termediate beings as the channels of com- 
munication. According to one accredited 
tradition alluded to by S. Stephen, the law 
was delivered 6 by the disposition of angels ' ; 
according to another this office was de- 
legated to a single angel, sometimes called 
the Angel of the Law (see Gal. hi. 19); at 
others the Metatron. But the more ordin- 
ary representative, as it were, of God, to 
the sense and mind of man, was the Memra, 
or the Divine Word ; and it is remarkable 
that the same appellation is found in the 
Indian, the Persian, the Platonic, and the 

254 



The Trinity 



Alexandrian systems. By the Targumists, 
the earliest Jewish commentators on the 
Scriptures, this term had been already ap- 
plied to the Messiah ; nor is it necessary to 
observe the manner in which it has been 
sanctified by its introduction into the Christ- 
ian scheme." 1 

As above said by the learned Dean, the 
idea of the Word, the Logos, was universal, 
and it formed part of the idea of a Trinity. 
Among the Hindus, the philosophers speak 
of the manifested Brahman as Sat-Chit- 
Ananda, Existence, Intelligence, and Bliss. 
Popularly, the Manifested God is a Trinity ; 
Shiva, the Beginning and the End ; Vishnu, 
the Preserver; Brahma, the Creator of the 
Universe. The Zoroastrian faith presents 
a similar Trinity ; Ahuramazdao, the Great 
One, the First; then "the twins," the dual 
Second Person — for the Second Person in a 
Trinity is ever dual, deteriorated in modern 
days into an opposing God and Devil — and 
the Universal Wisdom, Armaiti. In 
Northern Buddhism we find Amitabha, the 

1 H. H. Milman. The History of Christianity, 1867, pp. 
70-72. 

255 



Esoteric Christianity 



boundless Light ; Avalokiteshvara, the 
source of incarnations, and the Universal 
Mind, Mandjusri. In Southern Buddhism 
the idea of God has faded away, but with 
significant tenacity the triplicity re-appears 
as that in which the Southern Buddhist 
takes his refuge — the Buddha, the Dharma 
(the Doctrine), the Sangha (the Order). 
But the Buddha Himself is sometimes wor- 
shipped as a Trinity ; on a stone in Buddha 
Gaya is inscribed a salutation to Him as an 
incarnation of the Eternal One, and it is 
said: "Om! Thou art Brahma, Vishnu, 
and Mahesha (Shiva). ... I adore Thee, 
who art celebrated by a thousand names 
and under various forms, in the shape of 
Buddha, the God of Mercy." 1 

In extinct religions the same idea of a 
Trinity is found. In Egypt it dominated 
all religious worship. " We have a hieoro- 
glyphical inscription in the British Museum 
as early as the reign of Senechus of the 
eighth century before the Christian era, 
showing that the doctrine of Trinity in 



1 Asiatic Researches, i. 285. 
256 



The Trinity 



Unity already formed part of their relig- 
ion." 1 This is true of a far earlier date. 
Ra, Osiris, and Horns formed one widely 
worshipped Trinity; Osiris, Isis, and Horns 
were worshipped at Abydos; other names 
are given in different cities, and the triangle 
is the frequently used symbol of the Triune 
God. The idea which underlay these Trin- 
ities, however named, is shown in a passage 
quoted from Marutho, in which an oracle, 
rebuking the pride of Alexander the Great, 
speaks of: " First God, then the Word, and 
with Them the Spirit." 2 

In Chaldsea, Anu, Ea, and Bel were the 
Supreme Trinity, Anu being the Origin of 
all, Ea the Wisdom, and Bel the creative 
Spirit. Of China Williamson remarks: 
"In ancient China the emperors used to sac- 
rifice every third year to ' Him who is one 
and three.' There was a Chinese saying, 
'Fo is one person but has three forms. ' . . . 
In the lofty philosophical system known in 
China as Taoism, a trinity also figures: 

1 S. Sharpe. Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christ- 
ology, p. 14. 

2 See Williamson's The Great Law, p. 196. 

17 257 



Esoteric Christianity 



' Eternal Keason produced One, One pro- 
duced Two, Two produced Three, and Three 
produced all things,' which, as Le Compte 
goes on to say, ' seems to show as if they 
had some knowledge of the Trinity.' 

In the Christian doctrine of the Trinity 
we find a complete agreement with other 
faiths as to the functions of the three Divine 
Persons, the word Person coming from per- 
sona, a mask, that which covers something, 
the mask of the One Existence, Its Self- 
revelation under a form. The Father is the 
Origin and End of all ; the Son is dual in 
His nature, and is the Word, or the Wis- 
dom ; the Holy Spirit is the creative Intelli- 
gence, that brooding over the chaos of prim- 
eval matter organises it into the materials 
out of which forms can be constructed. 

It is this identity of functions under so 
many varying names which shows that we 
have here not a mere outer likeness, but an 
expression of an inner truth. There is 
something of which this triplicity is a mani- 
festation, something that can be traced in 



1 Loc. Cit., pp. 208, 209. 
258 



The Trinity 



nature and in evolution, and which, be- 
ing recognised, will render intelligible the 
growth of man 5 the stages of his evolving 
life. Further, we find that in the universal 
language of symbolism the Persons are dis- 
tinguished by certain emblems, and may be 
recognised by these under diversity of forms 
and names. 

But there is one other point that must be 
remembered ere we leave the exoteric state- 
ment of the Trinity — that in connection 
with all these Trinities there is a fourth 
fundamental manifestation, the Power cf 
the God, and this has always a feminine 
form. In Hinduism each Person in the 
Trinity has His manifested Power, the One 
and these six aspects making up the sacred 
Seven. With many of the Trinities one 
feminine form appears, then ever specially 
connected with the Second Person, and then 
there is the sacred Quaternary. 

Let us now see the inner truth. 

The One becomes manifest as the First 
Being, the Self-Existent Lord, the Eoot of 
all, the Supreme Father; the word Will, or 
Power, seems best to express this primary 
259 



Esoteric Christianity 



Self -revealing, since until there is Will to 
manifest there can be no manifestation, and 
until there is Will manifested, impulse is 
lacking for further unfoldment. The uni- 
verse may be said to be rooted in the divine 
Will. Then follows the second aspect of the 
One^ — Wisdom; Power is guided by Wis- 
dom, and therefore it is written that " with- 
out Him was not anything made that is 
made;" 1 Wisdom is dual in its nature, as 
will presently be seen. When the aspects 
of Will and Wisdom are revealed, a third 
aspect must follow to make them effective 
— Creative Intelligence, the divine mind in 
Action. A Jewish prophet writes: "He 
hath made the earth by His Power, He hath 
established the world by His Wisdom ; and 
hath stretched out the heaven by His Un- 
derstanding," 2 the reference to the three 
functions being very clear. 3 These Three 
are inseparable, indivisible, three aspects of 
One. Their functions may be thought of 
separately, for the sake of clearness, but 
cannot be disjoined. Each is necessary to 



*S. John i, 3. 2 Jer. li. 15, 

3 See Ante, pp. 178, 179. 
260 



The Trinity 



each, and each is present in each. In the 
First Being, Will, Power, is seen as pre- 
dominant, as characteristic, but Wisdom 
and Creative Action are also present ; in the 
Second Being, Wisdom is seen as predomi- 
nant, but Power and Creative Action are 
none the less inherent in Him ; in the Third 
Being, Creative Action is seen as predomi- 
nant, but Power and Wisdom are ever also 
to be seen. And though the words First, 
Second, Third are used, because the Beings 
are thus manifested in Time, in the order of 
Self-unfolding, yet in Eternity they are 
known as interdependent and co-equal, 
"None is greater or less than Another." 1 

This Trinity is the divine Self, the divine 
Spirit, the Manifested God, He that " was 
and is and is to come," 2 and He is the root 
of the fundamental triplicity in life, in con- 
sciousness. 

But we saw that there was a Fourth Per- 
son, or in some religions a second Trinity, 
feminine, the Mother. This is That which 
makes manifestation possible, That which 



1 Athanasian Creed. 

261 



2 Rev. iv. 8. 



Esoteric Christianity 



eternally in the One is the root of limitation 
and division, and which, when manifested, 
is called Matter. This is the divine Not- 
Self, the divine Matter, the manifested Nat- 
ure. Regarded as One, She is the Fourth, 
making possible the activity of the Three, 
the Field of Their operations by virtue of 
Her infinite divisibility, at once the "Hand- 
maid of the Lord," 1 and also His Mother, 
yielding of Her substance to form His Body, 
the universe, when overshadowed by His 
power. 2 Regarded carefully She is seen to 
be triple also, existing in three inseparable 
aspects, without which She could not be. 
These are Stability — Inertia or Resistance 
— Motion, and Rhythm ; the fundamental 
or essential qualities of Matter, these are 
called. They alone render Spirit effective, 
and have therefore been regarded as the 
manifested Powers of the Trinity. Stability 
or Inertia affords a basis, the fulcrum for 
the lever; Motion is then rendered manifest, 
but could make only chaos ; then Rhythm is 
imposed, and there is Matter in vibration, 



l S. Lukei. 38. 2 Ibid. , 35, 

262 



The Trinity 



capable of being shaped and moulded. When 
the three qualities are in equilibrium, there is 
the One, the Virgin Matter, unproductive. 
When the power of the Highest overshad- 
ows Her, and the breath of the Spirit comes 
upon Her, the qualities are thrown out of 
equilibrium, and She becomes the divine 
Mother of the worlds. 

The first interaction is between Her and 
the Third Person of the Trinity; by His ac- 
tion She becomes capable of giving birth to 
form. Then is revealed the Second Person, 
who clothes Himself in the material thus 
provided, and thus becomes the Mediator, 
linking in His own Person Spirit and mat- 
ter, the Archetype of all forms, Only 
through Him does the First Person become 
revealed, as the Father of all Spirits. 

It is now possible to see why the Second 
Person of the Trinity of Spirit is ever dual ; 
He is the One who clothes Himself in Mat- 
ter, in whom the twin-halves of Deity ap- 
pear in union, not as one. Hence also is He 
Wisdom ; for Wisdom on the side of Spirit 
is the Pure Eeason that knows itself as the 
One Self and knows all things in that Self 5 
263 



Esoteric Christianity 



and on the side of Matter it is Love, draw- 
ing the infinite diversity of forms together, 
and making each form a unit, not a mere 
heap of particles — the principle of attraction 
which holds the worlds and all in them in a 
perfect order and balance. This is the Wis- 
dom which is spoken of as " mightily and 
sweetly ordering all things," 1 which sus- 
tains and preserves the universe. 

In the world-symbols, found in every relig- 
ion, the Point — that which has position 
only — has been taken as a symbol of the 
First Person in the Trinity. On this symbol 
S. Clement of Alexandria remarks that we 
abstract from a body its properties, then 
depth, then breadth, then length; "the 
point which remains is a unit, so to speak, 
having position ; from which if we abstract 
position, there is the conception of unity." 2 
He shines out, as it were, from the infinite 
Darkness, a Point of Light, the centre of a 
future universe, a Unit, in whom all exists 
inseparate ; the matter which is to form the 

*Book of Wisdom, viii. 1. 

2 Vol. IV. Ante-Nicene Library. S. Clement of Alex- 
andria, Stromata, bk. V., ch. ii. 

264 



The Trinity 



universe, the field of His work, is marked 
out by the backward and forward vibration 
of the Point in every direction, a vast 
sphere, limited by His Will, His Power. 
This is the making of "the earth by His 
Power," spoken of by Jeremiah. 1 Thus the 
full symbol is a Point within a sphere, repre- 
sented usually as a Point within a circle. 
The Second Person is represented by a Line, 
a diameter of this circle, a single complete 
vibration of the Point, and this Line is 
equally in every direction within the sphere ; 
this Line dividing the circle in twain signi 
fies also His dualitj 7 , that in Him Matter 
and Spirit — a unity in the First Person — are 
visibly two, though in union. The Third 
Person is represented by a Cross formed by 
two diameters at right angles to each other 
within the circle, the second line of the 
Cross separating the upper part of the circle 
from the lower. This is the Greek Cross. 2 

When the Trinity is represented as a 
Unity, the Triangle is used, either inscribed 
within a circle, or free. The universe is 



1 See Ante, p. 260. 2 See Ante, p. 205. 

265 



Esoteric Christianity 



symbolised by two triangles interlaced, the 
Trinity of Spirit with the apex of the trian- 
gle upward, the Trinity of Matter with the 
apex of the triangle downward, and if col- 
ours are used, the first is white, yellow, 
golden or flame-coloured, and the second 
black, or some dark shade. 

The kosmic process can now be readily 
followed. The One has become Two, and 
the Two Three, and the Trinity is revealed. 
The Matter of the universe is marked out 
and awaits the action of Spirit. This is the 
"in the beginning" of Genesis, when "God 
created the heaven and the earth," 1 a state- 
ment further elucidated by the repeated 
phrases that He "laid the foundations of 
the earth; " 2 we have here the marking out 
of the material, but a mere chaos, " without 
form and void." 3 

On this begins the action of the Creative 
Intelligence, the Holy Spirit, who "moved 
upon the face of the waters," 4 the vast- 
ocean of matter. Thus His was the first 



1 Gen. i. 1. 2 Job xxxviii. 4; Zech. xii. 1; &c. 
3 Gen. i. 2. 4 Ibid. 

266 



The Trinity 



activity, though He was the Third Person — 
a point of great importance. 

In the Mysteries this work was shown in 
its detail as the preparation of the matter 
of the universe, the formation of atoms, the 
drawing of these together into aggregates, 
and the grouping of these together into 
elements, and of these again into gaseous, 
liquid, and solid compounds. This work in- 
cludes not only the kind of matter called 
physical, but also all the subtle states of 
matter in the invisible worlds. He further 
as the " Spirit of Understanding" conceived 
the forms into which the prepared matter 
should be shaped, not building the forms, 
but by the action of the Creative Intelli- 
gence producing the Ideas of them, the 
heavenly prototypes, as they are often 
called. This is the work referred to when 
it is written, He " stretched out the heaven 
by His Understanding." 1 

The work of the Second Person follows 
that of the Third. He by virtue of His 
Wisdom " established the world," 2 building 



1 See Ante, p. 260. 

267 



Esoteric Christianity 



all globes and all things upon them, "all 
things were made by Him." 1 He is the 
organising Life of the worlds, and all be- 
ings are rooted in Him. 2 The life of the 
Son thus manifested in the matter prepared 
by the Holy Spirit— again the great " Myth " 
of the Incarnation — is the life that builds 
up, preserves, and maintains all forms, for 
He is the Love, the attracting power, that 
gives cohesion to forms, enabling them to 
grow without falling apart, the Preserver, 
the Supporter, the Saviour. That is why 
all must be subject to the Son, 3 all must be 
gathered up in Him, and why "no man 
cometh unto the Father but by " Him. 4 

For the work of the First Person follows 
that of the Second, as that of the Second 
follows that of the Third. He is spoken of 
as "the Father of Spirits, " 5 the "God of the 
Spirits of all flesh," 6 and His is the gift of 
the divine Spirit, the true Self in man. The 
human Spirit is the outpoured divine Life 

1 S. John i. 3. 2 BJiagamd Gitd, ix. 4. 

3 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28. 

4 S. John xiv. 6. See also the further meaning of this 
text on p. 270. 5 Heb. xii. 9. 6 Numb. xvi. 22. 

268 



The Trinity 



of the Father, poured into the vessel pre- 
pared by the Son, out of the materials vivi- 
fied by the Spirit. And this Spirit in man, 
being from the Father — from whom came 
forth the Son and the Holy Spirit — is a 
Unity like Himself, with the three aspects 
in One, and man is thus truly made "in our 
image, after our likeness," 1 and is able to 
become "perfect, even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect." 2 

Such is the kosmic process, and in human 
evolution it is repeated; "as above, so be- 
low." 

The Trinity of the Spirit in man, being in 
the divine likeness, must show out the di- 
vine characteristics, and thus we find in 
him Power, which, whether in its higher 
form of Will or its lower form of Desire, 
gives the impulse to his evolution. We find 
also in him Wisdom, the Pure Eeason, 
which has Love as its expression in the 
world of forms, and lastly Intelligence, or 
Mind, the active shaping energy. And in 
man also we find that the manifestation of 



1 Gen. i. 26. 2 S. Matt, v. 48. 

269 



Esoteric Christianity 



these in his evolution is from the third to 
the second, and from the second to the first. 
The mass of humanity is unfolding the 
mind , evolving the intelligence, and we can 
see its separative action everywhere, isolat- 
ing, as it were, the human atoms and de- 
veloping each severally, so that they may be 
fit materials for building up a divine Hu- 
manity. To this point only has the race ar- 
rived, and here it is still working. 

As we study a small minority of our race, 
we see that the second aspect of the divine 
Spirit in man is appearing, and we speak of 
it in Christendom as the Christ in man. Its 
evolution lies, as we have seen, beyond the 
first of the Great Initiations, and Wisdom 
and Love are the marks of the Initiate, 
shining out more and more as he develops 
this aspect of the Spirit. Here again is it 
true that "no man cometh to the Father 
but by Me," for only when the life of the 
Son is touching on completion can He pray : 
"Now, Father, glorify Thou Me with 
Thine own Self, with the glory which I had 
with Thee before the world was." 1 Then 



1 S. John xvii. 5. 
270 



The Trinity 



the Son ascends to the Father and becomes 
one with Him in the divine glory ; He mani- 
fests self-existence, the existence inherent 
in his divine nature, unfolded from seed to 
flower, for "as the Father hath life in Him- 
self, so hath He given to the Son to have 
life in Himself." 1 He becomes a living 
self-conscious Centre in the Life of God, 
a Centre able to exist as such, no longer 
bound by the limitations of his earlier life, 
expanding to divine consciousness, while 
keeping the identity of his life unshaken, 
a living, fiery Centre in the divine Flame. 

In this evolution now lies the possibility 
of divine Incarnations in the future, as this 
evolution in the past has rendered possi- 
ble divine Incarnations in our own world. 
These living Centres do not lose Their iden- 
tity, nor the memory of Their past, of 
aught that They have experienced in the 
long climb upwards; and such a Self-con- 
scious Being can come forth from the 
Bosom of the Father, and reveal Himself 
for the helping of the world. He has main- 
tained the union in Himself of Spirit and 

1 S. John v. 26. 
271 



Esoteric Christianity 



Matter, the duality of the Second Person — 
all divine Incarnations in all religions are 
therefore connected with the Second Person 
in the Trinity — and hence can readily re- 
clothe Himself for physical manifestation, 
and again become Man,. This nature of the 
Mediator He has retained, and is thus a link 
between the celestial and terrestrial Trini- 
ties, "God with us" 1 He has ever been 
called. 

Such a Being, the glorious fruit of a past 
universe, can come into the present world 
with all the perfection of His divine Wis- 
dom and Love, with all the memory of His 
past, able by virtue of that memory to be 
the perfect Helper of every living Being, 
knowing every stage because He has lived 
it, able to help at every point because He 
has experienced all. "In that He Himself 
hath suffered being tempted, He is able to 
succour them that are tempted.' 52 

It is in the humanity behind Him that 
lies this possibility of divine Incarnation ; 
He comes down, having climbed up, in order 



1 S. Matt. i. 22. 2 Heb. ii. 18. 

272 



The Trinity 



to help others to climb the ladder. And as 
we understand these truths, and something 
of the meaning of the Trinity, above and 
below, what was once a mere hard unintel- 
ligible dogma becomes a living and vivi- 
fying truth. Only by the existence of the 
Trinity in man is human evolution intelligi- 
ble, and we see how man evolves the life of 
the intellect, and then the life of the Christ. 
On that fact mysticism is based, and our 
sure hope that we shall know God. Thus 
have the Sages taught, and as we tread the 
Path they show, we find that their testi- 
mony is true. 



18 



273 



Chapter X 



PEAYEE 1 

What is sometimes called "the modern 
spirit " is exceedingly antagonistic to prayer, 
failing to see any causal nexus between the 
uttering of a petition and the happening of 
an event, whereas the religious spirit is as 
strongly attached to it, and finds its very 
life in prayer. Yet even the religious man 
sometimes feels uneasy as to the rationale of 
prayer; is he teaching the All-wise, is he 
urging beneficence on the All-Good, is he 
altering the will of Him in "whom is no 
variableness, neither shadow of turning"? 2 
Yet he finds in his own experience and in 
that of others "answers to prayer," a defin- 
ite sequence of a request and a fulfilment. 
Many of these do not refer to subjective 

1 Much of this chapter has already appeared in an earlier 
work by the author, entitled, Some Problems of Life. 

2 S. James i. 17, 

274 



Prayer 



experiences, but to hard facts of the so- 
called objective world. A man has prayed 
for money, and the post has brought him 
the required amount; a woman has prayed 
for food, and food has been brought to her 
door. In connection with charitable under- 
takings, especially, there is plenty of evi- 
dence of help prayed for in urgent need, 
and of speedy and liberal response. On the 
other hand, there is also plenty of evidence 
of prayers left unanswered ; of the hungry 
starving to death, of the child snatched 
from its mother's arms by disease, despite 
the most passionate appeals to God. Any 
true view of prayer must take into account 
all these facts. 

Nor is this all. There are many facts 
in this experience which are strange and 
puzzling. A prayer that perhaps is trivial 
meets with an answer, while another on an 
important matter fails ; a passing trouble is 
relieved, while a prayer poured out to save 
a passionately beloved life finds no response. 
It seems almost impossible for the ordinary 
student to discover the law according to 
which a prayer is or is not productive, 
275 



Esoteric Christianity 



The first thing necessary in seeking to un- 
derstand this law is to analyse prayer itself, 
for the word is used to cover various activi- 
ties of the consciousness, and prayers cannot 
be dealt with as though they formed a sim- 
ple whole. There are prayers which are 
petitions for definite worldly advantages, 
for the supply of physical necessities — pray- 
ers for food, clothing, money, employment, 
success in business, recovery from illness, 
&c. These may be grouped together as 
Class A. Then we have prayers for help in 
moral and intellectual difficulties and for 
spiritual growth — for the overcoming of 
temptations, for strength, for insight, for 
enlightenment. These may be grouped as 
Class B. Lastly, there are the prayers that 
ask for nothing, that consist in meditation 
on and adoration of the divine Perfection, 
in intense aspiration for union with God — 
the ecstasy of the mystic, the meditation of 
the sage, the soaring rapture of the saint. 
This is the true "communion between the 
Divine and the human,' 5 when the man 
pours himself out in love and veneration for 
That which is inherently attractive, that 

276 



Prayer 



compels the love of the heart. These we 
will call Class C. 

In the invisible worlds there exist many 
kinds of Intelligences, which come into re- 
lationship with man, a veritable Jacob's lad- 
der, on which the Angels of God ascend and 
descend, and above which stands the Lord 
Himself. 1 Some of these Intelligences are 
mighty spiritual Powers, others are exceed- 
ingly limited beings, inferior in conscious- 
ness to man. This occult side of Nature — 
of which more will presently be said 2 — is a 
fact, recognised by all religions. All the 
world is filled with living things, invisible 
to fleshly eyes. The invisible worlds inter- 
penetrate the visible, and crowds of intelli- 
gent beings throng round us on every side. 
Some of these are accessible to human re- 
quests, and others are amenable to the hu- 
man will. Christianity recognises the ex- 
istence of the higher classes of Intelligences 
under the general name of Angels, and 
teaches that they are " ministering spirits, 
sent forth to minister"; 3 but what is their 

1 Gen. xxviii. 12, 13. 2 See Chapter xii. 

3 Heb. i. 14 
277 



Esoteric Christianity 



ministry, what the nature of their work, 
what their relationship to human beings, all 
that was part of the instruction given in the 
Lesser Mysteries, as the actual communica- 
tion with them was enjoyed in the Greater; 
but in modern days these truths have sunk 
into the background, except the little that 
is taught in the Greek and Eoman commun- 
ions. For the Protestant, "the ministry of 
angels" is little more than a phrase. In 
addition to all these, man is himself a con- 
stant creator of invisible beings, for the vi- 
brations of his thoughts and desires create 
forms of subtle matter the only life of 
which is the thought or the desire which 
ensouls them ; he thus creates an army of 
invisible servants, who range through the 
invisible worlds seeking to do his will. 
Yet, again, there are in these worlds hu- 
man helpers, who work there in their subtle 
bodies while their physical bodies are sleep- 
ing, whose attentive ear may catch a cry 
for help. And to crown all, there is the 
ever-present, ever-conscious Life of God 
Himself, potent and responsive at every 

point of His realm, of Him without whose 

278 



Prayer 



knowledge not a sparrow falleth to the 
ground, 1 not a dumb creature thrills in joy 
or pain, not a child laughs or sobs — that 
all-pervading, all-embracing, all-sustaining 
Life and Love, in which we live and move. 2 
As nought that can give pleasure or pain 
can touch the human body without the sens- 
ory nerves carrying the message of its 
impact to the brain-centres, and as there 
thrills down from those centres through the 
motor nerves the answer that welcomes or 
repels, so does every vibration in the uni- 
verse, which is His body, touch the con- 
sciousness of God, and draw thence respon- 
sive action. Nerve-cells, nerve-threads, 
and muscular fibres may be the agents of 
feeling and moving, but it is the man that 
feels and acts; so may myriads of Intelli- 
gences be the agents, but it is God who 
knows and answers. Nothing can be so 
small as not to affect that delicate omni- 
present consciousness, nothing so vast as to 
transcend it. We are so limited that the 
very idea of such an all-embracing con- 



1 S. Matt. x. 29. 2 Acts xvii. 28, 

279 



Esoteric Christianity 



sciousness staggers and confounds us; yet 
perhaps a gnat might be as hard bestead 
if he tried to measure the consciousness 
of Pythagoras. Professor Huxley, in a re- 
markable passage, has imagined the possi- 
bility of the existence of beings rising higher 
and higher in intelligence, the consciousness 
ever expanding, and the reaching of a stage 
as much above the human as the human is 
above that of the blackbeetle. 1 That is not 
a flight of the scientific imagination, but 
a description of a fact. There is a Being 
whose consciousness is present at every point 
of His universe, and therefore can be affect- 
ed from any point. That consciousness is 
not only vast in its field, but inconceivably 
acute, not diminished in delicate capacity to 
respond because it stretches its vast area in 
every direction, but is more responsive than 
a more limited consciousness, more perfect 
in understanding than the more restricted. 
So far from it being the case that the more 
exalted the Being the more difficult would 
it be to reach His consciousness, the very 

1 T. H. Huxley. Essays on some Controverted Questions, 
p. 36. 

280 



Prayer 



reverse is true. The more exalted the Be- 
ing, the more easily is His consciousness 
affected. 

Now this all-pervading Life is every- 
where utilising as channels all the embodied 
lives to which He has given birth, and any 
one of them may be used as an agent of 
that all-conscious Will. In order that that 
Will may express itself in the outer world, 
a means of expression must be found, and 
these beings, in proportion to their receptiv- 
ity, offer the necessary channels, and be- 
come the intermediary workers between one 
point of the kosmos and another. They act 
as the motor nerves of His body, and bring 
about the required action. 

Let us now take the classes into which 
we have divided prayers, and see the meth- 
ods by which they will be answered. 

When a man utters a prayer of Class A 
there are several means by which his prayer 
may be answered. Such a man is simple in 
his nature, with a conception of God natu- 
ral, inevitable, at the stage of evolution in 
which he is ; he regards Him as the supplier 
of his own needs, in close and immediate 
281 



Esoteric Christianity 



touch with his daily necessities, and he 
turns to Him for his daily bread as natu- 
rally as a child turns to his father or moth- 
er. A typical instance of this is the case 
of George Miiller, of Bristol, before he was 
known to the world as a philanthropist, 
when he was beginning his charitable work, 
and was without friends or money. He 
prayed for food for the children who had no 
resource save his bounty, and money always 
came sufficient for the immediate needs. 
What had happened? His prayer was a 
strong, energetic desire, and that desire 
creates a form, of which it is the life and 
directing energy. That vibrating, living 
creature has but one idea, the idea that en- 
souls it — help is wanted, food is wanted; 
and it ranges the subtle world, seeking. 
A charitable man desires to give help to the 
needy, is seeking opportunity to give. As 
the magnet to soft iron, so is such a person 
to the desire-form, and it is attracted to 
him. It rouses in his brain vibrations iden- 
tical with its own — -George Miiller, his or- 
phanage, its needs — and he sees the outlet 
for his charitable impulse, draws a cheque, 



Prayer 



and sends it. Quite naturally, George Mul- 
ler would say that God put it into the heart 
of such a one to give the needed help. In 
the deepest sense of the words that is true, 
since there is no life, no energy, in His uni- 
verse that does not come from God; but 
the intermediate agency, according to the 
divine laws, is the desire-form created by 
the prayer. 

The result could be obtained equally well 
by a deliberate exercise of the will, without 
any prayer, by a person who understood the 
mechanism concerned, and the way to put 
it in motion. Such a man would think 
clearly of what he needed, would draw to 
him the kind of subtle matter best suited to 
his purpose to clothe the thought, and by a 
deliberate exercise of his will would either 
send it to a definite person to represent his 
need, or to range his neighbourhood and be 
attracted by a charitably disposed person. 
There is here no prayer, but a conscious ex- 
ercise of will and knowledge. 

In the case of most people, however, ig- 
norant of the forces of the invisible worlds 
and unaccustomed to exercise their wills, 
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the concentration of mind and the earnest 
desire which are necessary for successful 
action are far more easily reached by prayer 
than by a deliberate mental effort to put 
forth their own strength. They would 
doubt their own power, even if they under- 
stood the theory, and doubt is fatal to the 
exercise of the will. That the person who 
prays does not understand the machinery he 
sets going in no wise affects the result. A 
child who stretches out his hand and grasps 
an object need not understand anything of 
the working of the muscles, nor of the elec- 
trical and chemical changes set up by the 
movement in muscles and nerves, nor need 
he elaborately calculate the distance of the 
object by measuring the angle made by 
the optic axes ; he wills to take hold of the 
thing he wants, and the apparatus of his 
body obeys his will though he does not even 
know of its existence. So is it with the 
man who prays, unknowing of the creative 
force of his thought, of the living creature 
he has sent out to do his bidding. He acts 
as unconsciously as the child, and like the 
child grasps what he wants. In both cases 

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Prayer 



God is equally the primal Agent, all power 
being from Him; in both cases the actual 
work is done by the apparatus provided by 
His laws. 

But this is not the only way in which 
prayers of this class are answered. Some 
one temporarily out of the physical body 
and at work in the invisible worlds, or a 
passing Angel, may hear the cry for help, 
and may then put the thought of sending 
the required aid into the brain of some 
charitable person. "The thought of so-and- 
so came into my head this morning," such a 
person will say, " I daresay a cheque would 
be useful to him." Very many prayers are 
answered in this way, the link between the 
need and the supply being some invisible 
Intelligence. Herein is part of the ministry 
of the lower Angels, and they will thus sup- 
ply personal necessities, as well as bring aid 
to charitable undertakings. 

The failure of prayers of this class is due 
to another hidden cause. Every man has 
contracted debts which have to be paid ; his 
wrong thoughts, wrong desires, and wrong 
actions have built up obstacles in his way, 
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Esoteric Christianity 



and sometimes even hem him in as the wails 
of a prison-house. A debt of wrong is dis- 
charged by a payment of suffering; a man 
must bear the consequences of the wrongs 
he has wrought. A man condemned to die 
of starvation by his own wrong-doing in the 
past may hurl his prayers against that dest- 
iny in vain. The desire-form he creates 
will seek but will not find ; it will be met 
and thrown back by the current of past 
wrong. Here, as everywhere, we are liv- 
ing in a realm of law, and forces may be 
modified or entirely frustrated by the play 
of other forces with which they come into 
contact. Two exactly similar forces might 
be applied to two exactly similar balls; in 
one case, no other force might be applied to 
the ball, and it might strike the mark 
aimed at ; in the other, a second force might 
strike the ball and send it entirely out of its 
course. And so with two similar prayers; 
one may go on its way unopposed and effect 
its object; the other may be flung aside by 
the far stronger force of a past wrong. One 
prayer is answered, the other unanswered ; 
but in both cases the result is by law. 

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Prayer 



Let us consider Class B. Prayers for 
help in moral and intellectual difficulties 
have a double result; they act directly to 
attract help, and they react on the person 
who prays. They draw the attention of the 
Angels, of the disciples working outside the 
body, who are ever seeking to help the be- 
wildered mind, and counsel, encouragement, 
illumination, are thrown into the brain-con- 
sciousness, thus giving the answer to prayer 
in the most direct way. " And he kneeled 
down and prayed .... and there appeared 
an Angel unto Him from heaven, strength- 
ening Him." 1 Ideas are suggested which 
clear away an intellectual difficulty, or 
throw 7 light on an obscure moral problem, 
or the sweetest comfort is poured into the 
distressed heart, soothing its perturbations 
and calming its anxieties. And truly if no 
Angel were passing that way, the cry of 
the distressed would reach the " Hidden 
Heart of Heaven," and a messenger would 
be sent to carry comfort, some Angel, ever 
ready to fly swiftly on feeling the impulse, 
bearing the Divine will to help. 



1 S. Luke xxii. 41, 43. 

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Esoteric Christianity 



There is also what is sometimes called 
a subjective answer to such prayers, the 
reaction of the prayer on the utterer. His 
prayer places his heart and mind in the re- 
ceptive attitude, and this stills the lower 
nature, and thus allows the strength and 
illuminative power of the higher to stream 
into it unchecked. The currents of energ3 7 
which normally flow downwards, or out- 
wards, from the Inner Man, are, as a rule, 
directed to the external world, and are util- 
ised in the ordinary affairs of life by the 
brain-consciousness, for the carrying on of 
its daily activities. But when this brain- 
consciousness turns away from the outer 
world, and shutting its outward-going 
doors, directs its gaze inwards; when it 
deliberately closes itself to the outer and 
opens itself to the inner ; then it becomes a 
vessel able to receive and to hold, instead of 
a mere conduit-pipe between the interior 
and exterior worlds. In the silence ob- 
tained by the cessation of the noises of ex- 
ternal activities, the " still small voice' 5 of 
the Spirit can make itself heard, and the 

concentrated attention of the expectant 

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Prayer 



mind enables it to catch the soft whisper of 
the Inner self. 

Even more markedly does help come from 
without and from within, when the prayer 
is for spiritual enlightenment, for spiritual 
growth. Not only do all helpers, angelic 
and human, most eagerly seek to forward 
spiritual progress, seizing on every oppor- 
tunity offered by the upward-aspiring soul; 
but the longing for such growth liberates 
energy of a high kind, the spiritual longing 
calling forth an answer from the spiritual 
realm. Once more the law of sympathetic 
vibrations asserts itself, and the note of 
lofty aspiration is answered by a note of its 
own order, by a liberation of energy of its 
own kind, by a vibration synchronous with 
itself. The Divine Life is ever pressing 
from above against the limits that bind it, 
and when the upward -rising force strikes 
against those limits from below, the separat- 
ing wall is broken through, and the Divine 
Life floods the Soul. When a man feels 
that inflow of spiritual life, he cries: "My 
prayer has been answered, and God has sent 
down His Spirit into my heart." Truly so; 
19 289 



Esoteric Christianity 



yet he rarely understands that that Spirit is 
ever seeking entrance, but that coming to 
His own, His own receive Him not. 1 " Be- 
hold, I stand at the door, and knock : if any 
man hear my voice, and open the door, I 
will come in to him." 2 

The general principle with regard to all 
prayers of this class is that just in propor- 
tion to the submergence of the personality 
and the intensity of the upward aspiration 
will be the answer from the wider life with- 
in and without us. We separate ourselves. 
If we cease the separation and make our- 
selves one with the greater, we find that 
light and life and strength flow into us. 
When the separate will is turned away from 
its own objects and set to serve the divine 
purpose, then the strength of the Divine 
pours into it. As a man swims against the 
stream, he makes slow progress; but with 
it, he is carried on by all the force of the 
current. Vln every department of Nature the 
divine energies are working, and everything 
that a man does he does by means of the 



1 S. John i. 11. 2 Rev. iii. 20. 

290 



Prayer 



energies that are working in the line along 
which he desires to do ; his greatest achieve- 
ments are wrought, not by his own ener- 
gies, but by the skill with which he selects 
and combines the forces that aid him, and 
neutralises those that oppose him by those 
that are favourable.! Forces that would 
whirl us away as straws in the wind become 
our most effective servants when we work 
with them. Is it then any wonder that in 
prayer, as in everything else, the divine 
energies become associated with the man 
who, by his prayer, seeks to work as part of 
the Divine? 

This highest form of prayer in Class B 
merges almost imperceptibly into Class C, 
where prayer loses its petitionary character, 
and becomes either a meditation on, or a 
worship of, God. Meditation is the steady 
quiet fixing of the mind on God, whereby 
the lower mind is stilled and presently left 
vacant, so that the Spirit, escaping from 
it, rises into contemplation of the divine 
Perfection, and reflects within himself the 
divine Image. "Meditation is silent or un~ 
uttered prayer, or as Plato expressed it : 6 the 

291 



Esoteric Christianity 



ardent turning of the Soul towards the 
Divine; not to ask any particular good (as 
in the common meaning of prayer), but 
for good itself, for the Universal Supreme 
Good." 51 

This is the prayer that, by thus liberating 
the Spirit, is the means of union between 
man and God. By the working of the laws 
of thought a man becomes that which he 
thinks, and when he meditates on the 
divine perfections he gradually reproduces 
in himself that on which his mind is fixed, | 
Such a mind, shaped to the higher and not 
the lower, cannot bind the Spirit, and the 
freed Spirit leaping upward to his source, 
prayer is lost in union and separateness is 
left behind. 

Worship also, the rapt adoration from 
which all petition is absent, and which seeks 
to pour itself forth in sheer love of the Per- 
fect, dimly sensed, is a means — the easiest 
means — of union with God. In this the 
consciousness, limited by the brain, contem- 
plates in mute ecstasy the Image it creates 



1 H. P. Blavatsky. Key to TlieosopJiy, p. 10. 
392 



Prayer 



of Him whom it knows to bo beyond imag- 
ining, and oft, rapt by the intensity of his 
love beyond the limits of the intellect, the 
man as a free Spirit soars upwards into 
realms where these limits are transcended, 
and feels and knows far more than on his 
return he can tell in words or clothe in form. 

Thus the Mystic gazes on the Beatific Vis- 
ion ; thus the Sage rests in the calm of the 
Wisdom that is beyond knowledge; thus 
the Saint reaches the purity wherein God is 
seen. Such prayer irradiates the worship- 
per, and from the mount of such high com- 
munion descending to the plains of earth, 
the very face of flesh shines with supernal 
glory, translucent to the flame that burns 
within. Happy they who know the reality 
which no words may convey to those who 
know it not. Those whose eyes have seen 
"the King in His beauty ' J1 will remember, 
and they will understand. 

When prayer is thus understood, its 
perennial necessity for all who believe in 
religion will be patent, and we see why its 
practice has been so much advocated by all 

*Js. xxxiii. 17. 
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Esoteric Christianity 

who study the higher life. For the student of 
the Lesser Mysteries prayer should be of the 
kinds grouped under Class B, and he should 
endeavour to rise to the pure meditation 
and worship of the last class, eschewing 
altogether the lower kinds. For him the 
teaching of Iamblichus on this subject is 
useful. Iamblichus says that prayers 
"produce an indissoluble and sacred com- 
munion with the Gods," and then proceeds 
to give some interesting details on prayer, 
as considered by the practical Occultist. 
"For this is of itself a thing worthy to be 
known, and renders more perfect the science 
concerning the Gods. I say, therefore, that 
the first species of prayer is Collective ; and 
that it is also the leader of contact with, 
and a knowledge of, divinity. The second 
species is the bond of concordant Commu- 
nion, calling forth, prior to the energy of 
speech, the gifts imparted by the Gods, 
and perfecting the whole of our operations 
prior to our intellectual conceptions. And 
the third and most perfect species of prayer 
is the seal of ineffable Union with the divin- 
ities, in whom it establishes all the power 

294 



Prayer 



and authority of prayer; and thus causes 
the soul to repose in the Gods, as in a never 
failing port. But from these three terms, 
in which all the divine measures are con- 
tained, suppliant adoration not only concili- 
ates to us the friendship of the Gods, but 
supernally extends to us three fruits, being 
as it were three Hesperian apples of gold. 
The first of these pertains to illumination ; 
the second to a communion of operation ; 
but through the energy of the third we 
receive a perfect plenitude of divine fire. . . . 
No operation, however, in sacred concerns, 
can succeed without the intervention of 
prayer. Lastly, the continual exercise of 
prayer nourishes the vigour of our intellect, 
and renders the receptacle of the soul far 
more capacious for the communications of 
the Gods! It likewise is the divine key, 
which opens to men the penetralia of the 
Gods; accustoms us to the splendid rivers 
of supernal light; in a short time perfects 
our inmost recesses, and disposes them for 
the ineffable embrace and contact of the 
Gods ; and does not desist till it raises us to 

the summit of all. It also gradually and, 
295 



Esoteric Christianity 



silently draws upward the manners of our 
soul, by divesting them of everything for- 
eign to a divine nature, and clothes us with 
the perfections of the Gods. Besides this, 
it produces an indissoluble communion and 
friendship with divinity, nourishes a divine 
love, and inflames the divine part of the 
soul. Whatever is of an opposing and con- 
trary nature in the soul, it expiates and 
purifies; expels whatever is prone to genera- 
tion and retains anything of the dregs of 
mortality in its ethereal and splendid spirit ; 
perfects a good hope and faith concerning 
the reception of divine light; and in one 
word, renders those by whom it is employed 
the familiars and domestics of the Gods.' 51 

Out of such study and practice one inevit- 
able result arises, as a man begins to un- 
derstand, and as the wider range of human 
life unfolds before him. He sees that by 
f knowledge his strength is much increased, 
that there are forces around him that he 
can understand and control, and that in 
proportion to his knowledge is his power. 
Then he learns that Divinity lies hidden 

1 On the Mysteries, sec. v, ch. 26. 
296 



Prayer 



within himself, and that nothing that is 
fleeting can satisfy that God within ; that 
only union with the One, the Perfect, can 
still his cravings. Then there gradually 
arises within hixn the will to set himself at 
one with the Divine; he ceases to vehement- 
ly seek to change circumstances, and to 
throw fresh causes into the stream of effects. 
He recognises himself as an agent rather 
than an actor, a channel rather than a 
source, a servant rather than a master, and 
seeks to discover the divine purposes and to 
work in harmony therewith. 

When a man has reached that point, he 
has risen above all prayer, save that which 
is meditation and worship; he has nothing 
to ask for, in this world or in any other ; he 
remains in a steadfast serenity, seeking but 
to serve God. That is the state of Sonship, 
where the will of the Son is one with the 
will of the Father, w r here the one calm sur- 
render is made, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, 
God. I am content to do it; yea, Thy 
law is within my heart." 1 Then all prayer 



1 Ps. xl. 7, 8, Prayer Book version. 
297 



Esoteric Christianity 

is seen to be unnecessary ; all asking is felt 
as an impertinence ; nothing can be longed 
for that is not already in the purposes of 
that Will, and all will be brought into 
active manifestation as the agents of that 
Will perfect themselves in the work. 



298 



Chapter XI 



THE FOEGIVENESS OF SINS 

" I believe in . . . the forgiveness of sins." 
"I acknowledge one baptism for the remis- 
sion of sins." The words fall facilely from 
the lips of worshippers in every Christian 
church throughout the world, as they repeat 
the familiar creeds called those of the Apos- 
tles and the Nicene. Among the sayings 
of Jesus the words frequently recur : "Thy 
sins are forgiven thee," and it is noteworthy 
that this phrase constantly accompanies the 
exercise of His healing powers, the release 
from physical and moral disease being thus 
marked as simultaneous. In fact, on one 
occasion He pointed to the healing of a 
palsy-stricken man as a sign that he had a 
right to declare to a man that his sins were 
forgiven. 1 So also of one woman it was 
said: "Her sins, which are many, are for- 
given, for she loved much." 2 In the 



1 S. Luke, v. 18-26. 2 IUd. vii. 47. 

299 



Esoteric Christianity 



famous Gnostic treatise, the Pistis Sophia, 
the very purpose of the Mysteries is said 
to be the remission of sins. " Should they 
have been sinners, should they have been 
in all the sins and all the iniquities of the 
world, of which I have spoken unto you, 
nevertheless if they turn themselves and re- 
pent, and have made the renunciation which 
I have just described unto 3 T ou, give ye unto 
them the mysteries of the kingdom of light ; 
hide them not from them at all. It is be- 
cause of sin that I have brought these mys- 
teries into the world, for the remission of 
all the sins which they have committed 
from the beginning. Wherefore have I 
said unto you aforetime, ' I came not to call 
the righteous.' Now, therefore, I have 
brought the mysteries, that the sins of all 
men may be remitted, and they be brought 
into the kingdom of light. For these mys- 
teries are the boon of the first mystery of 
the destruction of the sins and iniquities of 
all sinners." 1 

In these Mysteries, the remission of sin is 



1 G, R. S. Mead, translated. Loc. tit, bk. ii., §§ 260, 261. 
300 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



by baptism, as in the acknowledgment in 
the Nicene Creed. Jesus says: " Hearken, 
again, that I may tell you the word in truth, 
of what type is the mystery of baptism 
which remitteth sins. . . . When a man 
receiveth the mysteries of the baptisms, 
those mysteries become a mighty fire, ex- 
ceedingly fierce, wise, which burneth up all 
sins; they enter into the soul occultly, and 
devour all the sins which the spiritual coun- 
terfeit hath implanted in it." And after 
describing further the process of purifica- 
tion, Jesus adds: "This is the way in which 
the mysteries of the baptisms remit sins and 
every iniquity." 1 

In one form or another the "forgiveness 
of sins " appears in most, if not in all, re- 
ligions; and wherever this consensus of 
opinion is found, we may safely conclude, 
according to the principle already laid 
down, that some fact in nature underlies it. 
Moreover, there is a response in human 
nature to this idea that sins are forgiven ; 
we notice that people suffer under a con- 



1 IMd., §§ 299, 300. 
301 



Esoteric Christianity 



sciousness of wrong-doing, and that when 
they shake themselves clear of their past, 
and free themselves from the shackling fet- 
ters of remorse, they go forward with glad 
heart and sunlit eyes, though erstwhile en- 
clouded by darkness. They feel as though 
a burden were lifted off them, a clog 
removed. The "sense of sin" has disap- 
peared, and with it the gnawing pain. 
They know the springtime of the soul, the 
word of power which makes all things new. 
A song of gratitude wells up as the natural 
outburst of the heart, the time for the sing- 
ing of birds is come, there is "joy among 
the Angels." This not uncommon experi- 
ence is one that becomes puzzling, when the 
person experiencing it, or seeing it in an- 
other, begins to ask himself what has really 
taken place, what has brought about the 
change in consciousness, the effects of which 
are so manifest. 

Modern thinkers, who have thoroughly 
assimilated the idea of changeless laws 
underlying all phenomena, and who have 
studied the workings of these laws, are at 
first apt to reject any and every theory of 

302 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



the forgiveness of sins as being inconsistent 
with that fundamental truth, just as the 
scientist, penetrated with the idea of the in- 
violability of law, repels all thought which 
is inconsistent with it. And both are 
right in founding themselves on the un- 
faltering working of law, for law is but the 
expression of the divine Nature, in which 
there is no variableness, neither shadow 
of turning. Any view of the forgiveness 
of sins that we may adopt must not clash 
with this fundamental idea, as necessary to 
ethical as to physical science. "The 
bottom would fall out of everything" if 
we could not rest securely in the everlasting 
arms of the Good Law. 

But in pursuing our investigations, we are 
struck with the fact that the very Teachers 
who are most insistent on the changeless 
working of law are also those who emphati- 
cally proclaim the forgiveness of sins. At 
onetime Jesus is saying: "That every idle 
word that men shall speak, they shall give 
account thereof in the day of judgment," 1 
and at another: "Son, be of good cheer, thy 

1 S. Matt. xii. 36. 
303 



Esoteric Christianity 



sins be forgiven thee. 551 So in the Bhaga- 
vad Gitd we read constantly of the bonds of 
action, that "the world is bound by action," 2 
and that a man " recovereth the characteris- 
tics of his former body 55 ; 3 and yet it is said 
that "even if the most sinful worship me, 
with undivided heart, he, too, must be ac- 
counted righteous. 554 It would seem, then, 
that whatever may have been intended in 
the world's Scriptures by the phrase, "the 
forgiveness of sins, 55 it was not thought, by 
Those who best know the law, to clash with 
the inviolable sequence of cause and effect. 

If we examine even the crudest idea of the 
forgiveness of sins prevalent in our own day, 
we find that the believer in it does not mean 
that the forgiven sinner is to escape from 
the consequences of his sin in this world ; 
the drunkard, whose sins are forgiven on 
his repentance, is still seen to suffer from 
shaken nerves, impaired digestion, and the 
lack of confidence shown towards him by his 
fellow-men. The statements made as to 
forgiveness, when they are examined, are 

1 Ibid., ix. 2. -Loc. cit., iii. 9. 

*IMd., vi. 43. 4 Ibid. , ix. 30. 

304 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



ultimately found to refer to the relations 
between the repentant sinner and God, and 
to the post-mortem penalties attached to 
unforgiven sin in the creed of the speaker, 
and not to any escape from the mundane 
consequences of sin. The loss of belief in 
reincarnation, and of a sane view as to 
the continuity of life, whether it were spent 
in this or in the next two worlds, 1 brought 
with it various incongruities and indefens- 
ible assertions, among them the blasphem- 
ous and terrible idea of the eternal torture 
of the human soul for sins committed during 
the brief span of one life spent on earth. In 
order to escape from this nightmare, theo- 
logians posited a forgiveness which should 
release the sinner from this dread imprison- 
ment in an eternal hell. It did not, and 
was never supposed to, set him free in this 
world from the natural consequences of his 
ill-doings, nor — except in modern Protestant 
communities — was it held to deliver him 
from prolonged purgatorial sufferings, the 
direct results of sin, after the death of the 



1 See ante, Chap. VIII, 
20 305 



Esoteric Christianity 



physical body. The law had its course, both 
in this world and in purgatory, and in each 
world sorrow followed on the heels of sin, 
even as the wheels follow the ox. It was 1 
but eternal torture — which existed only in 
the clouded imagination of the believer — 
that was escaped by the forgiveness of sins ; 
and we may perhaps go so far as to suggest 
that the dogmatist, having postulated an 
eternal hell as the monstrous result of tran- 
sient errors, felt compelled to provide a way 
of escape from an incredible and unjust fate, 
and therefore further postulated an incred- 
ible and unjust forgiveness. Schemes that 
are elaborated by human speculation, with- 
out regard to the facts of life, are apt to 
land the speculator in thought-morasses, 
whence he can only extricate himself by 
blundering through the mire in an opposite 
direction. A superfluous eternal hell was 
balanced by a superfluous forgiveness, and 
thus the uneven scales of justice were again 
rendered level. Leaving these aberrations 
of the unenlightened, let us return into the 
realm of fact and right reason. 

When a man has committed an evil action 
306 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



he has attached himself to a sorrow, for sor- 
row is ever the plant that springs from the 
seed of sin. It may be said, even more 
accurately, that sin and sorrow are but 
the two sides of one act, not two separate 
events. As every object has two sides, one 
of which is behind, out of sight, when the 
other is in front, in sight, so every act has 
two sides, which cannot both be seen at once 
in the physical world. In other worlds, 
good and happiness, evil and sorrow, are 
seen as the two sides of the same thing. 
This is what is called karma—a convenient 
and now widely-used term, originally 8am- 
skrit, expressing this connection or identity, 
literally meaning "action" — and the suffer- 
ing is therefore called the karmic result of 
the wrong. The result, the " other side," 
may not follow immediately, may not even 
accrue during the present incarnation, but 
sooner or later it will appear and clasp the 
sinner with its arms of pain. Now a result 
in the physical world, an effect experienced 
through our physical consciousness, is the 
final outcome of a cause set going in the 
past; it is the ripened fruit; in it a particu- 
307 



Esoteric Christianity 



lar force becomes manifest and exhausts 
itself. That force has been working out- 
wards, and its effects are already over in the 
mind ere it appears in the body. Its bodily 
manifestation, its appearance, in the physi- 
cal world, is the sign of the completion of 
its course. 1 If at such a moment the sinner, 
having exhausted the karma of his sin, 
comes into contact with a Sage who can see 
the past and the present, the invisible and 
the visible, such a Sage may discern the end- 
ing of the particular karma, and, the sen- 
tence being completed, may declare the cap- 
tive free. Such an instance seems to be 
given in the story of the man sick of the 
palsy, already alluded to, a case typical of 
many. A physical ailment is the last ex- 
pression of a past ill-doing ; the mental and 
moral outworking is completed, and the suf- 
ferer is brought — by the agency of some 
Angel, as an administrator of the law — into 



1 This is the cause of the sweetness and patience often 
noticed in the sick who are of very pure nature. They 
have learned the lesson of suffering, and they do not make 
fresh evil karma by impatience under the result of past 
bad karma, then exhausting itself. 

308 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



the presence of One able to relieve physical 
disease by the exertion of a higher energy. 
First, the Initiate declares that the man's 
sins are forgiven, and then justifies his in- 
sight by the authoritative word, "Arise, 
take up thy bed, and go unto thine house." 
Had no such enlightened One been there, 
the disease would have passed away under 
the restoring touch of nature, under a force 
applied by the invisible angelic Intelligences, 
who carry out in this world the workings of 
karmic law; when a greater One is acting, 
this force is of more swiftly compelling 
power, and the physical vibrations are at 
once attuned to the harmony that is health. 
All such forgiveness of sins may be termed 
declaratory ; the karma is exhausted, and a 
"knower of karma " declares the fact. The 
assurance brings a relief to the mind that is 
akin to the relief experienced by a prisoner 
when the order for his release is given, that 
order being as much a part of the law as the 
original sentence; but the relief of the man 
who thus learns of the exhaustion of an evil 
karma is keener, because he cannot himself 
tell the term of its action, 
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Esoteric Christianity 



It is noticeable that these declarations of 
forgiveness are constantly coupled with the 
statement that the sufferer showed "faith," 
and that without this nothing could be done ; 
i.e., the real agent in the ending of this 
karma is the sinner himself. In the case of 
the "woman that was a sinner," the two 
declarations are coupled : " Thy sins are for- 
given . . . Thy faith hath saved thee; go 
in peace.' 51 This "faith " is the up-welling 
in man of his own divine essence, seeking 
the divine ocean of like essence, and when 
this breaks through the lower nature that 
holds it in— as the water-spring breaks 
through the encumbering earth-clods — the 
power thus liberated works on the whole 
nature, bringing it into harmony with itself. 
The man only becomes conscious of this as 
the karmic crust of evil is broken up by 
its force, and that glad consciousness of a 
power within himself hitherto unknown, as- 
serting itself as soon as the evil karma is 
exhausted, is a large factor in the joy, relief, 
and new strength that follow on the feeling 



1 S. Luke vii. 48, 50. 
310 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



that sin is " forgiven, 55 that its results are 
past. 

And this brings us to the heart of the sub- 
ject — the changes that go on in a man's in- 
ner nature, unrecognised by that part of his 
consciousness which works within the limits 
of his brain, until they suddenly assert 
themselves within those limits, coming 
apparently from nowhere, bursting forth 
"from the blue," pouring from an unknown 
source. What wonder that a man, bewil- 
dered by their downrush — knowing nothing 
of the mysteries of his own nature, nothing 
of "the inner God" that is verily himself — 
imagines that to be from without which is 
really from within, and, unconscious of his 
own Divinity, thinks only of Divinities in 
the world external to himself. And this 
misconception is the more easy, because the 
final touch, the vibration that breaks the 
imprisoning shell, is often the answer from 
the Divinity within another man, or within 
some superhuman being, responding to the 
insistent cry from the imprisoned Divinity 
within himself; he oft-times recognises the 
brotherly aid, while not recognising that 
311 



Esoteric Christianity 



he himself, the cry from his inner nature, 
called it forth. As an explanation from a 
wiser than ourselves may make an intellec- 
tual difficulty clear to our mind, though it 
is our own mind that, thus aided, grasps the 
solution ; as an encouraging word from one 
purer than ourselves may nerve us to a 
moral effort that we should have thought 
beyond our power, though it is our own 
strength that makes it; so may a loftier 
Spirit than our own, one more conscious of 
its Divinity, aid us to put forth our own 
divine energy, though it is that very putting 
forth that lifts us to a higher plane. We 
are all bound by ties of brotherly help to 
those above us as to those below us, and 
why should we, who so constantly find our- 
selves able to help in their development souls 
less advanced than ourselves, hesitate to ad- 
mit that we can receive similar help from 
Those far above us, and that our progress 
may be rendered much swifter by Their aid ? 

Now among the changes that go on in a 
man's inner nature, unknown to his lower 
consciousness, are those that have to do with 
the putting forth of his will. The Ego, 

312 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



glancing backward over his past, balancing 
up its results, suffering under its mistakes, 
determines on a change of attitude, on a 
change of activity. While his lower vehicle 
is still, under his former impulses, plunging 
along lines of action that bring it into sharp 
collisions with the law, the Ego determines 
on an opposite course of conduct. Hitherto 
he has turned his face longingly to the anim- 
al, the pleasures of the lower world have 
held him fast enchained. Now he turns his 
face to the true goal of evolution, and de- 
termines to work for loftier joys. He sees that 
the whole world is evolving, and that if he 
sets himself against that mighty current it 
dashes him aside, bruising him sorely in the 
process ; he sees that if he sets himself with 
it, it will bear him onwards on its bosom 
and land him in the desired haven. 

He then resolves to change his life, he 
turns determinedly on his steps, he faces the 
other way. The first result of the effort to 
turn his lower nature into the changed 
course, is much distress and disturbance. 
The habits formed under the impacts of the 
old views resist stubbornly the impulses 

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Esoteric Christianity 



flowing from the new, and a bitter conflict 
arises. Gradually the consciousness work- 
ing in the brain accepts the decision made 
on higher planes, and then " becomes con- 
scious of sin " by this very recognition of 
the law. The sense of error deepens, re- 
morse preys on the mind ; spasmodic efforts 
are made towards improvement, and, frus- 
trated by old habits, repeatedly fail, till the 
man, overwhelmed by grief for the past, 
despair of the present, is plunged into hope- 
less gloom. At last, the ever-increasing 
suffering wrings from the Ego a cry for 
help, answered from the inner depths of his 
own nature, from the God within as well as 
around him, the Life of his life. He turns 
from the lower nature that is thwarting 
him to the higher which is his innermost 
being, from the separated self that tortures 
him to the One Self that is the Heart of all. 

But this change of front means that he 
turns his face from the darkness, that he 
turns his face to the light. The light was 
always there, but his back was towards 
it; now he sees the sun, and its radiance 
cheers his eyes, and overfloods his being 

314 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



with delight. His heart was closed; it is 
now flung open, and the ocean of life flows 
in, in full tide, suffusing him with joy. 
Wave after wave of new life uplifts him, 
and the gladness of the dawn surrounds 
him. He sees his past as past, because his 
will is set to follow a higher path, and he 
recks little of the suffering that the past 
may bequeath to him, since he knows he 
will not hand on such bitter legacy from his 
present. This sense of peace, of joy, of free- 
dom, is the feeling spoken of as the result 
of the forgiveness of sins. The obstacles 
set up by the lower nature between the 
God within and the God without are swept 
away, and that nature scarce recognises 
that the change is in itself and not in the 
Oversoul. As a child, having thrust away 
the mother's guiding hand and hidden its 
face against the wall, may fancy itself 
alone and forgotten, until, turning with a 
cry, it finds around it the protecting mother- 
arms that were never but a handsbreadth 
away; so does man in his wilfulness push 
away the shielding arms of the divine 
Mother of the worlds, only to find, when he 
315 



Esoteric Christianity 



turns back his face, that he has never been 
outside their protecting shelter, and that 
wherever he may wander that guarding love 
is round him still. 

The key to this change in the man, that 
brings about "forgiveness," is given in the 
verse of the Bhagavad- Gitd already partly 
quoted: "Even if the most sinful worship 
me, with undivided heart, he too must be 
accounted righteous, for he hath rightly 
resolved" On that right resolution follows 
the inevitable result : " Speedily he becometh 
dutiful and goeth to peace." 1 The essence 
of sin lies in setting the will of the part 
against the will of the whole, the human 
against the Divine. When this is changed, 
when the Ego puts his separate will into 
union with the will that works for evolu- 
tion, then, in the world where to will is to 
do, in the world where effects are seen as 
present in causes, the man is "accounted 
righteous"; the effects on the lower planes 
must inevitably follow; "speedily he becom- 
eth dutiful" in action, having already be- 



1 Loc. cit. y ix. 31. 
316 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



come dutiful in will. Here we judge by 
actions, the dead leaves of the past; there 
they judge by wills, the germinating seeds 
of the future. Hence the Christ ever says 
to men in the lower world : "Judge not.' 51 

Even after the new direction has been 
definitely followed, and has become the nor- 
mal habit of the life, there come times of 
failure, alluded to in the Pistis Sophia, 
when Jesus is asked whether a man may be 
again admitted to the Mysteries, after he 
has fallen away, if he again repents. The 
answer of Jesus is in the affirmative, but he 
states that a time comes when re-admission 
is beyond the power of any save of the high- 
est Mystery, who pardons ever. "Amen, 
amen, I say unto you, whosoever shall re- 
ceive the mysteries of the first mystery, and 
then shall turn back and transgress twelve 
times [even], and then should again repent 
twelve times, offering prayer in the mystery 
of the first mystery, he shall be forgiven. 
But if he should transgress after twelve 
times, should he turn back and transgress, 



*S. Matt. vii. 1, 
317 



Esoteric Christianity 



it shall not be remitted unto him for ever, 
so that he may turn again unto his mystery, 
whatever it be. For him there is no means 
of repentance unless he have received the 
mysteries of that ineffable, which hath com- 
passion at all times and remitteth sins for 
ever and ever." 1 These restorations after 
failure, in which "sin is remitted," meet 
us in human life, especially in the higher 
phases of evolution. A man is offered an 
opportunity, which, taken, would open up 
to him new possibilities of growth. He 
fails to grasp it, and falls away from the 
position he had gained that made the 
further opportunity possible. For him, for 
the time, further progress is blocked; he 
must turn all his efforts wearity to retread 
the ground he had already trodden, and to 
regain and make sure his footing on the 
place from which he had slipped. Only 
when this is accomplished will he hear the 
gentle Voice that tells him that the past is 
out-worn, the weakness turned to strength, 
and that the gateway is again open for his 



l Loc. cit., bk. ii. § 305. 
318 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



passage. Here again the " forgiveness " is 
but the declaration by a proper authority of 
the true state of affairs, the opening of the 
gate to the competent, its closure to the in- 
competent. Where there had been failure, 
with its accompanying suffering, this declar- 
ation would be felt as a "baptism for the 
remission of sins," re-admitting the aspirant 
to a privilege lost by his own act; this 
would certainly give rise to feelings of joy 
and peace, to a relief from the burden of 
sorrow, to a feeling that the clog of the past 
had at last fallen from the feet. 

Kemains one truth that should never be 
forgotten: that we are living in an ocean of 
ligfrfc, of love, of bliss, that surrounds us 
at all times, the Life of God. As the sun 
floods the earth with his radiance so does 
that Life enlighten all, only that Sun of the 
world never sets to any part of it. We shut 
this light out of our consciousness by our 
selfishness, our heartlessness, our impurity, 
our intolerance, bat it shines on us ever the 
same, bathing us on every side, pressing 
against our self-built walls with gentle, 
strong persistence. When the soul throws 
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Esoteric Christianity 



down these excluding walls, the light flows 
in, and the soul finds itself flooded with sun- 
shine, breathing the blissful air of heaven. 
"For the Son of man is in heaven," though 
he knows it not, and its breezes fan his 
brow if he bares it to their breaths. God 
ever respects man's individuality, and will 
not enter his consciousness until that con- 
sciousness opens to give welcome; " Behold 
I stand at the door and knock " 1 is the atti- 
tude of every spiritual Intelligence towards 
the evolving human soul; not in lack of 
sympathy is rooted that waiting for the 
open door, but in deepest wisdom. 

Man is not to be compelled ; he is to be 
free. He is not a slave, but a God in the 
making, and the growth cannot be forced, 
but must be willed from within. Only 
when the will consents, as Giordano Bruno 
teaches, will God influence man, though He 
be "everywhere present, and ready to come 
to the aid of whosoever turns to Him 
through the act of the intelligence, and 
who unreservedly presents himself with the 



1 Rev. iii. 20. 
320 



The Forgiveness of Sins 



affection of the will. " 1 " The divine potency 
which is all in all does not proffer or with- 
hold, except through assimilation or rejec- 
tion by oneself. " 2 " It is taken in quickly, as 
the solar light, without hesitation, and makes 
itself present to whoever turns himself to 
it and opens himself to it . . . the windows 
are opened, but the sun enters in a moment, 
so does it happen similarly in this case." 3 

The sense of " forgiveness," then, is the 
feeling which fills the heart with joy when 
the will is tuned to harmony with the Di- 
vine, when, the soul having opened its win- 
dows, the sunshine of love and light and 
bliss pours in, when the part feels its one- 
ness with the whole, and the One Life 
thrills each vein. This is the noble truth 
that gives vitality to even the crudest pres- 
entation of the " forgiveness of sins," and 
that makes it often, despite its intellectual 
incompleteness, an inspirer to pure and 
spiritual living. And this is the truth, as 
seen in the Lesser Mysteries. 

1 G. Bruno, trans, by L. Williams. The Heroic Enthu- 
siasts, vol. i., p. 183. 

2 Ibid., vol. ii., pp. 27, 28. *IMd., pp. 102, 103. 

21 321 



Chapter XII 



SACRAMENTS 

In all religions there exist certain ceremon- 
ials, or rites, which are regarded as of vital 
importance by the believers in the religion, 
and which are held to confer certain benefits 
on those taking part in them. The word 
Sacrament, or some equivalent term, has 
been applied to these ceremonials, and they 
all have the same character. Little exact 
exposition has been given as to their nature 
and meaning, but this is another of the sub- 
jects explained of old in the Lesser Myster- 
ies. 

The peculiar characteristic of a Sacrament 
resides in two of its properties. First, there 
is the exoteric ceremony, which is a pictorial 
allegory, a representation of something by 
actions and materials — not a verbal alle- 
gory, a teaching given in words, conveying 
a truth; but an acted representation, certain 

322 



Sacraments 



definite material things used in a particular 
way. The object in choosing these mat- 
erials, and aimed at in the ceremonies by 
which their manipulation is accompanied, is 
to represent, as in a picture, some truth 
which it is desired to impress upon the 
minds of the people present. That is the 
first and obvious property of a Sacrament, 
differentiating it from other forms of wor- 
ship and meditation. It appeals to those 
who without this imagery would fail to 
catch a subtle truth, and shows to them in 
a vivid and graphic form the truth which 
otherwise would escape them. Every Sacra- 
ment, when it is studied, should be taken 
first from this standpoint, that it is a pictor- 
ial allegory; the essential things to be stud- 
ied will therefore be: the material objects 
which enter into the allegory, the method 
in which they are employed, and the mean- 
ing which the whole is intended to convey. 

The second characteristic property of a 
Sacrament belongs to the facts of the invis- 
ible worlds, and is studied by occult science. 
The person who officiates in the Sacrament 
should possess this knowledge, as much, 
323 



Esoteric Christianity 



though not all, of the operative power of 
the Sacrament depends on the knowledge of 
the officiator. A Sacrament links the mat- 
erial world with the subtle and invisible 
regions to which that world is related ; it is 
a link between the visible and the invisible. 
And it is not only a link between this world 
and other worlds, but it is also a method by 
which the energies of the invisible world are 
transmuted into action in the physical ; an 
actual method of changing energies of one 
kind into energies of another, as literally as 
in the galvanic cell chemical energies are 
changed into electrical. The essence of all 
energies is one and the same, whether in 
the visible or invisible worlds ; but the energ- 
ies differ according to the grades of matter 
through which they manifest. A Sacra- 
ment serves as a kind of crucible in which 
spiritual alchemy takes place. An energy 
placed in this crucible and subjected to cer- 
tain manipulations comes forth different 
in expression. Thus an energy of a subtle 
kind, belonging to one of the higher regions 
of the universe, may be brought into direct 

relation with people living in the physical 

324 



Sacraments 



world, and may be made to affect them in 
the physical world as well as in its own 
realm; the Sacrament forms the last bridge 
from the invisible to the visible, and enables 
the energies to be directly applied to those 
who fulfil the necessary conditions and who 
take part in the Sacrament. 

The Sacraments of the Christian Church 
lost much of their dignity and of the recog- 
nition of their occult power among those 
who separated from the Eoman Catholic 
Church at the time of the " Reformation." 
The previous separation between the East 
and the West, leaving the Greek Orthodox 
Church on the one side and the Eoman 
Church on the other, in no way affected be- 
lief in the Sacraments. They remained in 
both great communities as the recognised 
links between the seen and the unseen, and 
sanctified the life of the believer from cradle 
to grave. The Seven Sacraments of Christi- 
anity cover the whole of life, from the 
welcome of Baptism to the farewell of Ex- 
treme Unction. They were established by 
Occultists, by men who knew the invisible 
worlds; and the materials used, the words 
325 



Esoteric Christianity 



spoken, the signs made, were all deliberately 
chosen and arranged with a view to bring- 
ing about certain results. 

At the time of the Reformation, the 
seceding Churches, which threw off the yoke 
of Kome, were not led by Occultists, but by 
ordinary men of the world, some good and 
some bad, but all profoundly ignorant of the 
facts of the invisible worlds, and conscious 
only of the outer shell of Christianity, its 
literal dogmas and exoteric worship. The 
consequence of this was that the Sacraments 
lost their supreme place in Christian wor- 
ship, and in most Protestant communities 
were reduced to two, Baptism and the 
Eucharist. The sacramental nature of 
the others was not explicitly denied in 
the most important of the seceding 
Churches, but the two were set apart from 
the five, as of universal obligation, of 
which every member of the Church must 
partake in order to be recognised as a full 
member. 

The general definition of a Sacrament is 
given quite accurately, save for the super- 
fluous words, "ordained by Christ Him- 

326 



Sacraments 



self," in the Catechism of the Church of 
England, and even these words might be 
retained if the mystic meaning be given to 
the word " Christ." A Sacrament is there 
said to be: "An outward and visible sign 
of an inward and spiritual grace given unto 
us, ordained by Christ Himself, as a means 
whereby we receive the same and a pledge 
to assure us thereof." 

In this definition we find laid down the 
two distinguishing characteristics of a Sac- 
rament as given above. The "outward and 
visible sign " is the pictorial allegory, and 
the phrase, the "means whereby we receive 
the" "inward and spiritual grace" covers 
the second property. This last phrase 
should be carefully noted by those members 
of Protestant Churches who regard Sacra- 
ments as mere external forms and outer 
ceremonies. For it distinctly alleges that 
the Sacrament is really a means whereby 
the grace is conveyed, and thus implies that 
without it the grace does not pass in the 
same fashion from the spiritual to the physi- 
cal world. It is the distinct recognition of 
a Sacrament in its second aspect, as a means 
327 



Esoteric Christianity 



whereby spiritual powers are brought into 
activity on earth. 

In order to understand a Sacrament, it is 
necessary that we should definitely recog- 
nise the existence of an occult, or hidden, 
side of Nature ; this is spoken of as the life- 
side of Nature, the consciousness-side, more 
accurately the mind in Nature. Underlying 
all sacramental action there is the belief 
that the invisible world exercises a potent 
influence over the visible, and to understand 
a Sacrament we must understand some- 
thing of the invisible Intelligences who 
administer Nature. We have seen in study- 
ing the doctrine of the Trinity that Spirit 
is manifested as the triple Self, and that 
as the Field for His manifestation there is 
Matter, the form -side of Nature, often 
regarded, and rightly, as Nature herself. We 
have to study both these aspects, the side 
of life and that of form, in order to under- 
stand a Sacrament. 

Stretching between the Trinity and 
humanity are many grades and hierarchies 
of invisible beings ; the highest of these are 
the seven Spirits of God, the seven Fires, or 

328 



Sacraments 



Flames, that are before the throne of God. 1 
Each of these stands at the head of a vast 
host of Intelligences, all of whom share His 
nature and act under His direction ; these 
are themselves graded, and are the Thrones, 
Powers, Princes, Dominations, Archangels, 
Angels, of whom mention is found, in the 
writings of the Christian Fathers, who were 
versed in the Mysteries. Thus there are 
seven great hosts of these Beings, and they 
represent in their intelligence the divine 
Mind in Nature. They are found in ail 
regions, and they ensoul the energies of 
Nature. From the standpoint of occultism 
there is no dead force and no dead matter. 
Force and matter alike are living and 
active, and an energy or a group of energies 
is the veil of an Intelligence, of a Conscious- 
ness, who has that energy as his outer 
expression, and the matter in which that 
energy moves yields a form which he guides 
or ensouls. Unless a man can thus look at 
Nature all esoteric teaching must remain 
for him a sealed book. Without these 
angelic Lives, these countless invisible Intei- 



1 Rev. iv. 5. 
329 



Esoteric Christianity 



ligences, these Consciousnesses which en- 
soul the force and matter 1 which is Nature, 
Nature herself would not only remain unin- 
telligible, but she would be out of relation 
alike to the divine Life that moves within 
and around her, and to the human lives 
that are developing in her midst. These 
innumerable Angels link the worlds to- 
gether ; they are themselves evolving while 
helping the evolution of beings lower than 
themselves, and a new light is shed on evo- 
lution when we see that men form grades 
in these hierarchies of intelligent beings. 
These angels are the "sons of God 55 of an 
earlier birth than ours, who "shouted for 
joy " 2 when the foundations of the earth 
were laid amid the choiring of the Morning 
Stars. 

Other beings are below us in evolution 
— animals, plants, minerals, and elemental 
lives — as the Angels are above us ; and as 
we thus study, a conception dawns upon us 

1 The phrase " force and matter " is used as it is so well- 
known in science. But force is one of the properties of 
matter, the one mentioned as Motion. See Ante, p. 262. 

2 Job xxxviii. 7. 

330 



Sacraments 



of a vast Wheel of Life, of numberless 
existences, inter-related and necessary each 
to each, man as a living Intelligence, as a 
self conscious being, having his own place in 
this Wheel. The Wheel is ever turning by 
the divine Will, and the living Intelligences 
who form it learn to co-operate with that 
Will, and if in the action of those Intelli- 
gences there is any break or gap due to 
neglect or opposition, then the Wheel drags, 
turning slowly, and the chariot of the 
evolution of the worlds goes but heavily 
upon its way. 

These numberless Lives, above and below 
man, come into touch with human con- 
sciousness in very definite ways, and among 
these ways are sounds and colours. Each 
sound has a form in the invisible world, 
and combinations of sounds create compli- 
cated shapes. 1 In the subtle matter of those 
worlds all sounds are accompanied by col- 
ours, so that they give rise to many-hued 
shapes, in many cases exceedingly beautiful. 

1 See on forms created by musical notes any scientific 
book on Sound, and also Mrs. Watts-Hughes' illustrated 
book on Voice Figures. 

331 



Esoteric Christianity 



The vibrations set up in the visible world 
when a note is sounded set up vibrations in 
the worlds invisible, each one with its own 
specific character, and capable of producing 
certain effects. In communicating with the 
sub-human Intelligences connected with the 
lower invisible world and with the physi- 
cal, and in controlling and directing these, 
sounds must be used fitted to bring about 
the desired results, as language made up of 
definite sounds is used here. And in com- 
municating with the higher Intelligences 
certain sounds are useful, to create a 
harmonious atmosphere, suitable for their 
activities, and to make our own subtle 
bodies receptive of their influences. 

This effect on the subtle bodies is a most 
important part of the occult use of sounds. 
These bodies, like the physical, are in con- 
stant vibratory motion, the vibrations 
changing with every thought or desire. 
These changing irregular vibrations offer an 
obstacle to any fresh vibration coming from 
outside, and, in order to render the bodies 
susceptible to the higher influences, sounds 

are used which reduce the irregular vibra- 

332 



Sacraments 



tions to a steady rhythm, like in its nature 
to the rhythm of the Intelligence sought 
to be reached. The object of all often- 
repeated sentences is to effect this, as a musi- 
cian sounds the same note over and over 
again, until all the instruments are in tune. 
The subtle bodies must be tuned to the note 
of the Being sought, if his influence is to 
find free way through the nature of the 
worshipper, and this was ever done of old 
by the use of sounds. Hence, music has 
ever formed an integral part of worship, 
and certain definite cadences have been pre- 
served with care, handed, on from age to age. 

In every religion there exist sounds of a 
peculiar character, called " Words of Pow- 
er, 5 ' consisting of sentences in a particular 
language chanted in a particular way; each 
religion possesses a stock of such sentences, 
special successions of sounds, now very gen- 
erally called " mantras," that being the 
name given to them in the East, where the 
science of mantras has been much studied 
and elaborated. It is not necessary that a 
mantra — a succession of sounds arranged in 
a particular manner to bring about a defi- 

333 



Esoteric Christianity 



nite result — should be in any one particular 
language. Any language can be used for 
the purpose, though some are more suitable 
than others, provided that the person who 
makes the mantra possesses the requisite 
occult knowledge. There are hundreds of 
mantras in the Samskrit tongue, made by 
Occultists of the past, who were familiar 
with the laws of the invisible worlds. These 
have been handed down from generation to 
generation, definite words in a definite order 
chanted in a definite way. The effect of 
the chanting is to create vibrations, hence 
forms, in the physical and super-physical 
worlds, and according to the knowledge and 
purity of the singer will be the worlds his 
song is able to affect. If his knowledge be 
wide and deep, if his will be strong and his 
heart pure, there is scarcely any limit to the 
powers he may exercise in using some of 
these ancient mantras. 

As said, it is not necessary that any one 
particular language should be used. They 
may be in Samskrit, or in any one of the 
languages of the world, in which men of 
knowledge have put them together. 

334 



Sacraments 



This is the reason why, in the Roman 
Catholic Church, the Latin language is al- 
ways used in important acts of worship. 
It is not used as a dead language here, a 
tongue "not understanded of the people," 
but as a living force in the invisible worlds. 
It is not used to hide knowledge from the 
people, but in order that certain vibrations 
may be set up in the invisible worlds which 
cannot be set up in the ordinary languages 
of Europe, unless a great Occultist should 
compose in them the necessary successions 
of sounds. To translate a mantra is to 
change it from a "Word of Power" into 
an ordinary sentence; the sounds being 
changed, other sound-forms are created. 

Some of the arrangements of Latin 
words, with the music wedded to them in 
Christian worship, cause the most marked 
effects in the supra-physical worlds, and any 
one who is at all sensitive will be conscious 
of peculiar effects caused by the chanting of 
some of the most sacred sentences, especially 
in the Mass. Vibratory effects may be felt 
by any one who will sit quiet and receptive 
as some of these sentences are uttered by 
335 



Esoteric Christianity 



priest or choristers. And at the same time 
effects are caused in the higher worlds di- 
rectly affecting the subtle bodies of the wor- 
shippers in the way above described, and 
also appealing to the Intelligences in those 
worlds with a meaning as definite as the 
words addressed by one person to another 
on the physical plane, whether as prayer or, 
in some cases, as command. The sounds, 
causing active flashing forms, rise through 
the worlds, affecting the consciousness of 
the Intelligences residing in them, and 
bringing some of them to render the defin- 
ite services required by those who are 
taking part in the church office. 

Such mantras form an essential part of 
every Sacrament. 

The next essential part of the Sacrament, 
in its outward and visible form, are certain 
gestures. These are called Signs, or Seals, 
or Sigils — the three words meaning the 
same thing in a Sacrament. Each sign has 
its own particular meaning, and marks the 
direction imposed on the invisible forces 
with which the celebrant is dealing, whether 
those forces be his 'own or poured through 

336 



Sacraments 



him. In any case, they are needed to bring 
about the desired result, and they are an 
essential portion of the sacramental rite. 
Such a sign is called a "Sign of Power," as 
the mantra is a " Word of Power." 

It is interesting to read in occult works of 
the past references to these facts, true then 
as now, true now as then. In the Egyptian 
Booh of the Dead is described the post-mor- 
tem journey of the Soul, and we read how 
he is stopped and challenged at various 
stages of that journey. He is stopped and 
challenged by the Guardians of the Gate of 
each successive w r orld, and the Soul cannot 
pass through the Gate and go on his way 
unless he knows two things : he must pro- 
nounce a word, the Word of Power: he 
must make a sign, the Sign of Power. 
When that Word is spoken, when that Sign 
is given, the bars of the Gate fall down, and 
the Guardians stand aside to let the Soul 
pass through. A similar account is given 
in the great mystic Christian Gospel, the 
Pistis Sophia, before mentioned. 1 Here the 
passage through the worlds is not of a Soul 

1 See ante, p. 137 and p. 300. 
22 337 



Esoteric Christianity 



set free from the body by death, but of one 
who has voluntarily left it in the course 
of Initiation. There are great Powers, the 
Powers of Nature, that bar his way, and till 
the Initiate gives the Word and the Sign, 
they will not allow him to pass through the 
portals of their realms. This double know- 
ledge, then, was necessary — to speak the 
Word of Power, to make the Sign of Power. 
Without these progress was blocked, and 
without these a Sacrament is no Sacrament. 

Further, in all Sacraments some physical 
material is used, or should be used. 1 This 
is ever a symbol of that which is to be 
gained by the Sacrament, and points to 
the nature of the "inward and spiritual 
grace" received through it. This is also 
the material means of conveying the grace, 
not symbolically, but actually, and a subtle 
change in this material adapts it for high 
ends. 

Now a physical object consists of the 
solid, liquid, and gaseous particles into 

1 In the Sacrament of Penance the ashes are now usually 
omitted, except on special occasions, but none the less they 
form part of the rite, 

338 



Sacraments 



which a chemist would resolve it by analysis, 
and further of ether, which inter-penetrates 
the grosser stuffs. In this ether play the 
magnetic energies. It is further connected 
with counterparts of subtle matter, in which 
play energies subtler than the magnetic, but 
like them in nature and more powerful. 

When such an object is magnetised a 
change is effected in the ethereal portion, 
the wave-motions are altered and systemat- 
ised, and made to follow the wave-motions 
of the ether of the magnetiser; it thus 
comes to share his nature, and the denser 
particles of the object, played on by the 
ether, slowly change their rates of vibration. 
If the magnetiser has the power of affecting 
the subtler counterparts also, he makes them 
similarly vibrate in assonance with his own. 

This is the secret of magnetic cures: the 
irregular vibrations of the diseased person 
are so worked on as to accord with the reg- 
ular vibrations of the healthy operator, as 
definitely as an irregularly swinging ob- 
ject may be made to swing regularly by 
repeated and timed blows. A doctor will 
magnetise water and cure his patient there- 
339 



Esoteric Christianity 



with. He will magnetise a cloth, and the 
cloth, laid on the seat of pain, will heal. 
He will use a powerful magnet, or a current 
from a galvanic cell, and restore energy to 
a nerve. In all cases the ether is thrown 
into motion, and by this the denser physical 
particles are affected. 

A similar result accrues when the materi- 
als used in a Sacrament are acted on by 
the Word of Power and the Sign of Power. 
Magnetic changes are caused in the ether of 
the physical substance, and the subtle coun- 
terparts are affected according to the know- 
ledge, purity, and devotion of the celebrant 
who magnetises — or, in the religious term, 
consecrates — it. Further, the Word and 
the Sign of Power summon to the celebra- 
tion the Angels specially concerned with 
the materials used and the nature of the act 
performed, and they lend their powerful 
aid, pouring their own magnetic energies 
into the subtle counterparts, and even into 
the physical ether, thus reinforcing the en- 
ergies of the celebrant. No one who knows 
anything of the powers of magnetism can 
doubt the possibility of the changes in mat- 

340 



Sacraments 



erial objects thus indicated. And if a man 
of science, who may have no faith in the 
unseen, has the power to so impregnate 
water with his own vital energy that it 
cures a physical disease, why should power 
of a loftier, though similar, nature be deni- 
ed to those of saintly life, of noble charac- 
ter, of knowledge of the invisible? Those 
who are able to sense the higher forms of 
magnetism know very well that consecrated 
objects vary much in their power, and that 
the magnetic difference is due to the vary- 
ing knowledge, purity, and spirituality of 
the priest who consecrates them. Some 
deny all vital magnetism, and would- reject 
alike the holy water of religion and the 
magnetised water of medical science. They 
are consistent, but ignorant. But those 
who admit the utility of the one, and laugh 
at the other, show themselves to be not wise 
but prejudiced, not learned but one-sided, 
and prove that their want of belief in relig- 
ion biases their intelligence, predisposing 
them to reject from the hand of religion 
that which they accept from the hand of 

science. A little will be added to this with 

341 



Esoteric Christianity 



regard to "sacred objects" generally in 
Chapter XIV. 

We thus see that the outer part of the 
Sacrament is of very great importance. 
Eeal changes are made in the materials 
used. They are made the vehicles of en- 
ergies higher than those which naturally 
belong to them ; persons approaching them, 
touching them, will have their own etheric 
and subtle bodies affected by their potent 
magnetism, and will be brought into a con- 
dition very receptive of higher influences, 
being tuned into accord with the lofty Be- 
ings connected with the Word and the Sign 
used in consecration; Beings belonging to 
the invisible world will be present during 
the sacramental rite, pouring out their be- 
nign and gracious influences; and thus all 
who are worthy participants in the cere- 
mony — sufficiently pure and devoted to be 
tuned by the vibrations caused — will find 
their emotions purified and stimulated, their 
spirituality quickened, and their hearts 
filled with peace, by coming into such close 
touch with the unseen realities. 

342 



i 



Chapter XIII 



SACBAMENTS {continued) 

We have now to apply these general princip- 
les to concrete examples, and to see how 
they explain and justify the sacramental 
rites found in all religions. 

It will be sufficient if we take as examples 
three out of the Seven Sacraments used in 
the Church Catholic. Two are recognised 
as obligatory by all Christians, although 
extreme Protestants deprive them of their 
sacramental character, giving them a 
declaratory and remembrance value only 
instead of a sacramental ; yet even among 
them the heart of true devotion wins some 
thing of the sacramental blessing the head 
denies. The third is not recognised as even 
nominally a Sacrament by Protestant 
Churches, though it shows the essential 
signs of a Sacrament, as given in the defin- 
ition in the Catechism of the Church of 
343 



Esoteric Christianity 



England already quoted . 1 The first is that of 
Baptism ; the second that of the Eucharist ; 
the third that of Marriage. The putting of 
Marriage out of the rank of a Sacrament 
has much degraded its lofty ideal, and has 
led to much of that loosening of its tie that 
thinking men deplore. 

The Sacrament of Baptism is found in 
all religions, not only at the entrance into 
earth-life, but more generally as a ceremony 
of purification. The ceremony which ad- 
mits the new-born — or adult — incomer 
into a religion has a sprinkling with water 
as an essential part of the rite, and this was 
as universal in ancient days as it is now. 
The Eev. Dr. Giles remarks: "The idea of 
using water as emblematic of spiritual 
washing is too obvious to allow surprise at 
the antiquity of this rite. Dr. Hyde, in his 
treatise on the Religion of the Ancient 
Persians, xxxiv. 406, tells us that it pre- 
vailed among that people. ' They do not 
use circumcision for their children, but only 
baptism, or washing for the purification of 
the soul. They bring the child to the priest 



1 See ante, p. 327. 
344 



Sacraments 



into the church, and place him in front of 
the sun and fire, which ceremony being 
completed, they look upon him as more 
sacred than before. Lord says that they 
bring the water for this purpose in bark of 
the Holm-tree; that tree is in truth the 
Haum of the Magi, of which we spoke be- 
fore on another occasion. Sometimes also 
it is otherwise done by immersing him in a 
large vessel of water, as Tavernier tells us. 
After such washing, or baptism, the priest 
imposes on the child the name given by the 
parents. ' " 1 A few weeks after the birth of 
a Hindu child a ceremony is performed, a 
part of which consists in sprinkling the 
child with water — such sprinkling entering 
into all Hindu worship. Williamson gives 
authorities for the practice of Baptism in 
Egypt, Persia, Thibet, Mongolia, Mexico, 
Peru, Greece, Eome, Scandinavia, and 
among the Druids. 2 Some of the prayers 
quoted are very fine: "I pray that this ce- 
lestial water, blue and light blue, may enter 
into thy body and there live. I pray that it 

1 Christian Records, p. 129. 

2 The Great Laic, pp. 161-166. 

345 



Esoteric Christianity 



may destroy in thee, and put away from 
thee, all the things evil and adverse that 
were given to thee before the beginning of 
the world." "0 child! receive the water of 
the Lord of the world who is our life : it is 
to wash and to purify ; may these drops re- 
move the sin which was given to thee be- 
fore the creation of the world, since all of us 
are under its power." 

Tertullian mentions the very general use 
of Baptism among non-Christian nations in 
a passage already quoted, 1 and others of the 
Fathers refer to it. 

In most religious communities a minor 
form of Baptism accompanies all religious 
ceremonies, water being used as a symbol of 
purification, and the idea being that no man 
should enter upon worship until he has 
purified his heart and conscience, the outer 
washing symbolising the inner lustration. 
In the Greek and Roman Churches a small 
receptacle for holy water is placed near 
every door, and every incoming worshipper 
touches it, making with it on himself the 
sign of the cross ere he goes onward towards 



1 See ante, p. 150. 



Sacraments 



the altar. On this Robert Taylor remarks : 
"The baptismal fonts in our Protestant 
churches, and we need hardly say more es- 
pecially the little cisterns at the entrance of 
our Catholic chapels, are not imitations, but 
an unbroken and never interrupted continu- 
ation of the same aqua minaria, or amula, 
which the learned Montfaucon, in his An- 
tiquities, shows to have been vases of holy 
water, which were placed by the heathens 
at the entrance of their temples, to sprinkle 
themselves with upon entering those sacred 
edifices." 1 

Whether in the Baptism of initial recep- 
tion into the Church, or in these minor 
lustrations, water is the material agent 
employed, the great cleansing fluid in 
Nature, and therefore the best symbol for 
purification. Over this water a mantra is 
pronounced, in the English ritual repre- 
sented by the prayer, "Sanctify this water 
to the mystical washing away of sin," con- 
cluding with the formula, "In the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost. Amen." This is the Word of 

1 Diegesis, p. 219. 
347 



Esoteric Christianity 



Power, and it is accompanied by the Sign 
of Power, the Sign of the Cross made over 
the surface of the water. 

The Word and the Sign give to the water, 
as before explained, a property it previously 
had not, and it is rightly named "holy 
water." The dark powers will not approach 
it; sprinkled on the body it gives a sense 
of peace, and conveys new spiritual life. 
When a child is baptised, the spiritual 
energy given to the water by the Word and 
the Sign reinforces the spiritual life in the 
child, and then the Word of Power is again 
spoken, this time over the child, and the 
Sign is traced on his forehead, and in his 
subtle bodies the vibrations are felt, and the 
summons to guard the life thus sanctified 
goes forth through the invisible world ; for 
this Sign is at once purifying and protective 
— purifying by the life that is poured forth 
through it, protective by the vibrations it 
sets up in the subtle bodies. Those vibra- 
tions form a guardian wall against the at- 
tacks of hostile influences in the invis- 
ible worlds, and every time that holy water 
is touched, the Word pronounced, and the 

348 



Sacraments 



Sign made, the energy is renewed, the vi- 
brations are reinforced, both being recog- 
nised as potent in the invisible worlds, and 
bringing aid to the operator. 

In the early Church, Baptism was pre- 
ceded by a very careful preparation, those 
admitted to the Church being mostly con- 
verts from surrounding faiths. A convert 
passed through three definite stages of in- 
struction, remaining in each grade till he 
had mastered its teachings, and he was then 
admitted to the Church by Baptism. Onty 
after that was he taught the Creed, which 
was not committed to writing, nor ever re- 
peated in the presence of an unbeliever; it 
thus served as a sign of recognition, and a 
proof of the position of the man who was 
able to recite it, showing that he was a bap- 
tised member of the Church. How truly in 
those days the grace conveyed by Baptism 
was believed in is shown by the custom of 
death-bed Baptism that grew up. Believ- 
ing in the reality of Baptism, men and 
women of the world, unwilling to resign its 
pleasures or to keep their lives pure from 
stain, would put off the rite of Baptism 
349 



Esoteric Christianity 



until Death's hand was upon them, so that 
they might benefit by the sacramental 
grace, and pass through Death's portal pure 
and clean, full of spiritual energy. Against 
that abuse some of the great Fathers of the 
Church struggled, and struggled effectively. 
There is a quaint story told by one of them, 
I think by S. Athanasius, who was a man 
of caustic wit, not averse to the use of hu- 
mour in the attempt to make his hearers 
understand at times the folly or perversity 
of their behaviour. He told his congrega- 
tion that he had had a vision, and had 
gone up to the gateway of heaven, where 
S. Peter stood as Warder. No pleased smile 
had he for the visitant, but a frown of stern 
displeasure. " Athanasius," said he, "why 
are you continually sending me these empty 
bags, carefully sealed up, with nothing in- 
side?" It was one of the piercing sayings 
we meet with in Christian antiquity, when 
these things were real to Christian men, 
and not mere forms, as they too often are 
to-day. 

The custom of Infant Baptism gradually 
grew up in the Church, and hence the in- 

350 



Sacraments 



struction which in the early days preceded 
Baptism came to be the preparation for Con- 
firmation, when the awakened mind and in- 
telligence take up and re-affirm the baptis- 
mal promises. The reception of the infant 
into the Church is seen to be rightly done, 
when man's life is recognised as being lived 
in the three worlds, and when the Spirit and 
Soul who have come to inhabit the new-born 
body are known to be not unconscious and 
unintelligent, but conscious, intelligent, and 
potent in the invisible worlds. It is right 
and just that the " Hidden Man of the 
heart " 1 should be welcomed to the new 
stage of his pilgrimage, and that the most 
helpful influences should be brought to bear 
upon the vehicle in which he is to dwell, and 
which he has to mould to his service. If the 
eyes of men were opened, as were of old those 
of the servant of Elisha, they would still see 
the horses and chariots of fire gathered 
round the mountain where is the prophet of 
the Lord. 2 

We come to the second of the Sacraments 



1 Pet. iii. 4. 



351 



2 2 Kings vi. 17. 



Esoteric Christianity 



selected for study, that of the Sacrifice of 
the Eucharist, a symbol of the eternal Sacri- 
fice already explained, the daily sacrifice of 
the Church Catholic throughout the world 
imaging that eternal Sacrifice by which the 
worlds were made, and by which they are 
evermore sustained. It is to be daily of- 
fered, as its archetype is perpetually exist- 
ent, and men in that act take part in the 
working of the Law of Sacrifice, identify 
themselves with it, recognise its binding 
nature, and voluntarily associate themselves 
with it in its working in the worlds; in 
such identification, to partake of the mate- 
rial part of the Sacrament is necessary, if the 
identification is to be complete, but many of 
the benefits may be shared, and the influ- 
ence going forth to the worlds may be 
increased, by devout worshippers, who asso- 
ciate themselves mentally, but not physi- 
cally, with the act. 

This great function of Christian worship 
loses its force and meaning when it is re- 
garded as nothing more than a mere com 
memoration of a past sacrifice, as a pictorial 
allegory without a deep ensouling truth, as 

352 



Sacraments 



a breaking of bread and a pouring out of 
wine without a sharing in the eternal Sacri- 
fice. So to see it is to make it a mere shell, 
a dead picture instead of a living reality. 
"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it 
not the communion of [the communication 
of, the sharing in] the blood of Christ? " asks 
the apostle. "The bread which we break, 
is it not the communion of the body of 
Christ?" 1 And he goes on to point out 
that all who eat of a sacrifice become par- 
takers of a common nature, and are joined 
into a single body, which is united to, shares 
the nature of, that Being who is present in 
the sacrifice. A fact of the invisible world 
is here concerned, and he speaks with the 
authority of knowledge. Invisible Beings 
pour of their essence into the materials used 
in any sacramental rite, and those who par- 
take of those materials — which become 
assimilated in the body and enter into its 
ingredients — are thereby united to those 
whose essence is in it, and they all share a 
common nature. This is true when we take 
even ordinary food from the hand of an- 



23 



1 1 Cor. x. 16. 
353 



Esoteric Christianity 



other — part of his nature, his vital magnet- 
ism, mingles with our own; how much more 
true then when the food has been solemnly 
and purposely impregnated with higher 
magnetisms, which affect the subtle bodies 
as well as the physical. If we would under- 
stand the meaning and use of the Eucharist 
we must realise these facts of the invisible 
worlds, and we must see in it a link between 
the earthly and the heavenly, as well as an 
act of the universal worship, a co-operation, 
an association, with the Law of Sacrifice, 
else it loses the greater part of its signifi- 
cance. 

The employment of bread and wine as the 
materials for this Sacrament — like the use 
of water in the Sacrament of Baptism — is of 
very ancient and general usage. The Per- 
sians offered bread and wine to Mithra, and 
similar offerings were made in Thibet and 
Tartary. Jeremiah speaks of the cakes and 
the drink offered to the Queen of Heaven by 
the Jews in Egypt, they taking part in the 
Egyptian worship. 1 In Genesis we read 
that Melchisedek, the King-Initiate, used 



1 Jer. xliv. 
354 



Sacraments 



bread and wine in the blessing of Abra- 
ham. 1 In the various Greek Mysteries 
bread and wine were used, and Williamson 
mentions their use also among the Mexi- 
cans, Peruvians, and Druids. 2 

The bread stands as the general symbol 
for the food that builds up the body, and 
the wine as symbol of the blood, regarded 
as the life-fluid, " for the life of the flesh is 
in the blood." 3 Hence members of a family 
are said to share the same blood, and to be 
of the blood of a person is to be of his kin. 
Hence, also, the old ceremonies of the 
" blood -covenant when a stranger was 
made one of a family or of a tribe, some 
drops of blood from a member were trans- 
fused into his veins, or he drank them 
— usually mingled with water ■ — and was 
thenceforth considered as being a born 
member of the family or tribe, as being of 
its blood. Similarly, in the Eucharist, tho 
worshippers partake of the bread, symbol- 
ising the body, the nature, of the Christ, 

1 Gen. xiv. 18, 19. 
2 The Great Laic, pp. 177-181, 185. 
3 Lev. xvii. 11. 
355 



Esoteric Christianity 



and of the wine, symbolising the blood, the 
life of the Christ, and become of His kin, 
one with Him. 

The Word of Power is the formula " This 
is My Body, 55 "This is My Blood." This it 
is which works the change which we shall 
consider in a moment, and transforms the 
materials into vehicles of spiritual energies. 
The Sign of Power is the hand extended 
over the bread and the wine, and the Sign 
of the Cross should be made upon them, 
though this is not always done among Pro- 
testants. These are the outer essentials of 
the Sacrament of the Eucharist. 

It is important to understand the change 
which takes place in this Sacrament, for it 
is more than the magnetisation previously 
explained, though this also is wrought. 
We have here a special instance of a general 
law. 

By the occultist, a visible thing is re- 
garded as the last, the physical, expression 
of an invisible truth. Everything is the 
physical expression of a thought. An ob- 
ject is but an idea externalised and densi- 
fied. All the objects in the world are Divine 

356 



Sacraments 



ideas expressed in physical matter. That 
being so, the reality of the object does not 
lie in the outer form but in the inner life, in 
the idea that has shaped and moulded the 
matter into an expression of itself. In the 
higher worlds, the matter being very subtle 
and plastic, shapes itself very swiftly to 
the idea, and changes form as the thought 
changes. As matter becomes denser, heav- 
ier, it changes form less readily, more 
slowly, until, in the physical world, the 
changes are at their slowest in consequence 
of the resistance of the dense matter of 
which the physical world is composed. Let 
sufficient time be given, however, and even 
this heavy matter changes under the press- 
ure of the ensouling idea, as may be seen by 
the graving on the face of the expressions 
of habitual thoughts and emotions. 

This is the truth which underlies what is 
called the doctrine of Transubstantiation, so 
extraordinarily misunderstood by the ordin- 
ary Protestant. But such is the fate of 
occult truths when they are presented to the 
ignorant. The " substance " that is changed 
is the idea which makes a thing to be what 

357 



Esoteric Christianity 



it is; "bread " is not mere flour and water; 
the idea which governs the mixing, the 
manipulation, of the flour and water, that 
is the "substance " which makes it " bread," 
and the flour and the water are what are 
technically called the "accidents," the ar- 
rangements of matter that give form to the 
idea. With a different idea, or substance, 
flour and water would take a different form, 
as indeed they do when assimilated by the 
body. So also chemists have discovered 
that the same kind and the same number of 
chemical atoms may be arranged in differ- 
ent ways and thus become entirely differ- 
ent things in their properties, though the 
materials are unchanged; such "isomeric 
compounds " are among the most interest- 
ing of modern chemical discoveries; the ar- 
rangement of similar atoms under different 
ideas gives different bodies. 

What, then, is this change of substance 
in the materials used in the Eucharist? 
The idea that makes the object has been 
changed ; in their normal condition bread 
and wine are food-stuffs, expressive of the 

divine ideas of nutritive objects, objects 

358 



Sacraments 



fitted for the building up of bodies. The 
new idea is that of the Christ nature and 
life, fitted for the building up of the spirit- 
ual nature and life of man. That is the 
change of substance; the object remains 
unchanged in its "accidents," its physical 
material, but the subtle matter connected 
with it has changed under the pressure of 
the changed idea, and new properties are 
imparted by this change. They affect the 
subtle bodies of the participants, and 
attune them to the nature and life of the 
Christ. On the " worthiness 55 of the particip 
ant depends the extent to which he can 
be thus attuned. 

The unworthy participant, subjected to 
the same process, is injuriously affected by 
it, for his nature, resisting the pressure, is 
bruised and rent by the forces to which it is 
unable to respond, as an object may be 
broken into pieces by vibrations which it is 
unable to reproduce. 

The worthy partaker, then, becomes one 
with the Sacrifice, with the Christ, and so 
becomes also at one with, united to, the di- 
vine Life, which is the Father of the Christ, 

359 



Esoteric Christianity 



Inasmuch as the act of Sacrifice on the side 
of form is the yielding up of the life it sep- 
arates from others to be part of the com- 
mon Life, the offering of the separated 
channel to be a channel of the one Life, so 
by that surrender the sacrificer becomes one 
with God. It is the giving itself of the 
lower to be a part of the higher, the yield- 
ing of the body as an instrument of the 
separated will to be an instrument of the 
divine Will, the presenting of men's " bodies 
as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
God." 1 Thus it has been truly taught in 
the Church that those who rightly take part 
in the Eucharist enjoy a partaking of the 
Christ-life poured out for men. The trans- 
muting of the lower into the higher is the 
object of this, as of all, Sacraments. The 
changing of the lower force by its union 
with the loftier is what is sought by those 
who participate in it ; and those who know 
the inner truth, and realise the fact of the 
higher life, may in any religion, by means 
of its sacraments, come into fuller, com- 
pleter touch with the divine Life that up- 

1 Rom. xii. 1. 
360 



Sacraments 



holds the worlds, if they bring to the rite 
the receptive nature, the act of faith, the 
opened heart, which are necessary for the 
possibilities of the Sacrament to be realised. 

The Sacrament of Marriage shows out the 
marks of a Sacrament as clearly and as defi- 
nitely as do Baptism and the Eucharist, 
Both the outer sign and the inward grace 
are there. The material is the Ring — the 
circle w T hich is the symbol of the everlasting. 
The Word of Power is the ancient formula, 
"In the Name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The Sign of 
Power is the joining of hands, symbolising 
the joining of the lives. These make up 
the outer essentials of the Sacrament. 

The inner grace is the union of mind with 
mind, of heart with heart, which makes 
possible the realisation of the unity of spirit, 
without which Marriage is no Marriage, but 
a mere temporary conjunction of bodies. 
The giving and receiving of the ring, the 
pronouncing of the formula, the joining of 
hands, these form the pictorial allegory ; if 
the inner grace be not received, if the par- 
ticipants do not open themselves to it by 

361 



Esoteric Christianity 



their wish for the union of their whole na- 
tures, the Sacrament for them loses its 
beneficent properties, and becomes a mere 
form. 

But Marriage has a yet deeper meaning ; 
religions with one voice have proclaimed it 
to be the image on earth of the union be- 
tween the earthly and the heavenly, the 
union between God and man. And even 
then its significance is not exhausted, for it 
is the image of the relation between Spirit 
and Matter, between the Trinity and the 
Universe. So deep, so far-reaching, is the 
meaning of the joining of man and woman 
in Marriage. 

Herein the man stands as representing 
the Spirit, the Trinity of Life, and the 
woman as representing the Matter, the 
Trinity of formative material. One gives 
life, the other receives and nourishes it. 
They are complementary to each other, two 
inseparable halves of one whole, neither ex- 
isting apart from the other. As Spirit im- 
plies Matter and Matter Spirit, so husband 
implies wife and wife husband. As the ab- 
stract Existence manifests in two aspects, as 

362 



Sacraments 



a duality of Spirit and Matter, neither inde- 
pendent of the other, but each coming into 
manifestation with the other, so is humanity 
manifested in two aspects — husband and 
wife, neither able to exist apart, and ap^ 
pearing together. They are not twain but 
one, a dual-faced unity. God and the Uni- 
verse are imaged in Marriage; thus closely 
linked are husband and wife. 

It is said above that Marriage is also an 
image of the union between God and man, 
between the universal and the individualised 
Spirits. This symbolism is used in all the 
great scriptures of the world — Hindu, He- 
brew, Christian. And it has been extended 
by taking the individualised Spirit as a Na- 
tion or a Church, a collection of such Spirits 
knit into a unity. So Isaiah declared to 
Israel: "Thy Maker is thine Husband; the 
Lord of hosts is His name ... As the 
bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall 
thy God rejoice over thee." 1 So S. Paul 
wrote that the mystery of Marriage repre- 
sented Christ and the Church. 2 



1 Isaiah liv. 5; lxii. 5. 2 Eph. v. 23-32. 

363 



Esoteric Christianity 



If we think of Spirit and Matter as latent, 
unmanifested, then we see no production; 
manifested together, there is evolution. 
And so when the halves of humanity are 
not manifested as husband and wife, there 
is no production of fresh life. Moreover, 
they should be united in order that there 
may be a growth of life in each, a swifter 
evolution, a more rapid progress, by the 
half that each can give to each, each sup- 
plying what the other lacks. The twain 
should be blended into one, setting forth the 
spiritual possibilities of man. And they 
show forth also the perfect Man, in whose 
nature Spirit and Matter are both com- 
pletely developed and perfectly balanced, 
the divine Man who unites in his own 
person husband and wife, the male and 
female elements in nature, as "God and 
Man are one Christ." 1 

Those who thus study the Sacrament of 
Marriage will understand why religions 
have ever regarded Marriage as indissolu- 
ble, and have thought it better that a few 
ill-matched pairs should suffer for a few 

1 Athanasian Creed. 
364 



Sacraments 



years than that the ideal of true Marriage 
should be permanently lowered for all. A 
nation must choose whether it will adopt as 
its national ideal a spiritual or an earthly 
bond in Marriage, the seeking in it of a 
spiritual unity, or the regarding it as merely 
a physical union. The one is the religious 
idea of Marriage as a Sacrament ; the other 
the materialistic idea of it as an ordinary 
terminable contract. The student of the 
Lesser Mysteries must ever see in it a sacra- 
mental rite. 



365 



Chapter XIV 
EEVBLATION 

All the religions known to us are the custo- 
dians of Sacred Books, and appeal to these 
books for the settlement of disputed quest- 
ions. They always contain the teachings 
given by the Founder of the religion, or by 
later teachers regarded as possessing super- 
human knowledge. Even when a religion 
gives birth to many discordant sects, each 
sect will cling to the Sacred Canon, and will 
put upon its word the interpretation which 
best fits in with its own peculiar doctrines. 
However widely may be separated in belief 
the extreme Eoman Catholic and the ex- 
treme Protestant, they both appeal to the 
same Bible. However far apart may be 
the philosophic Vedantin and the most illit- 
erate Vallabhacharya. they both regard the 
same Vedas as supreme. However bitterly 
opposed to each other may be the Shias and 

366 



Revelation 



the Sunnis, they both regard as sacred the 
same Kurdn. Controversies and quarrels 
may arise as to the meaning of texts, but 
the Book itself, in every case, is looked on 
with the utmost reverence. And rightly 
so ; for all such books contain fragments of 
The Eevelation, selected by One of the great 
Ones who hold it in trust ; such a fragment 
is embodied in what down here we call a 
Revelation, or a Scripture, and some part of 
the world rejoices in it as in a treasure of 
vast value. The fragment is chosen accord- 
ing to the needs of the time, the capacity of 
the people to whom it is given, the type of 
the race whom it is intended to instruct. It 
is generally given in a peculiar form, in 
which the outer history, or story, or song, 
or psalm, or prophecy, appears to the super- 
ficial or ignorant reader to be the whole 
book ; but in these deeper meanings lie con- 
cealed, sometimes in numbers, sometimes 
in words constructed on a hidden plan — 
a cypher, in fact — sometimes in symbols, 
recognisable by the instructed, sometimes in 
allegories written as histories, and in many 
other ways. These Books, indeed, have 

367 



Esoteric Christianity 



something of a sacramental character about 
them, an outer form and an inner life, an 
outer symbol and an inner truth. Those 
only can explain the hidden meaning who 
have been trained by those instructed in it ; 
hence the dictum of S. Peter that " no proph- 
ecy of the Scripture is of any private in- 
terpretation." 1 The elaborate explanations 
of texts of the Bible, with which the vol- 
umes of patristic literature abound, seem 
fanciful and overstrained to the prosaic 
modern mind. The play upon numbers, 
upon letters, the apparently fantastic inter- 
pretations of paragraphs that, on the face of 
them, are ordinary historical statements of 
a simple character, exasperate the modern 
reader, who demands to have his facts pre- 
sented clearly and coherently, and above 
all, requires what he feels to be solid ground 
under his feet. He declines absolutely to 
follow the light-footed mystic over what 
seem to him to be quaking morasses, in a 
wild chase after dancing will-o'-the-wisps, 
which appear and disappear with bewilder- 
ing and irrational caprice. Yet the men 

1 2 Pet. i. 20. 
368 



Revelation 



who wrote these exasperating treatises were 
men of brilliant intellect and calm judg- 
ment, the master-builders of the Church. 
And to those who read them aright they are 
still full of hints and suggestions, and indi- 
cate many an obscure pathway that leads to 
the goal of knowledge, and that might 
otherwise be missed. 

We have already seen that Origen, one of 
the sanest of men, and versed in occult 
knowledge, teaches that the Scriptures are 
three-fold, consisting of Body, Soul, and 
Spirit. 1 He says that the Body of the Scrip- 
tures is made up of the outer words of the 
histories and the stories, and he does not 
hesitate to say that these are not literally 
true, but are only stories for the instruction 
of the ignorant. He even goes so far as to 
remark that statements are made in those 
stories that are obviously untrue, in order 
that the glaring contradictions that lie on 
the surface may stir people up to inquire as 
to the real meaning of these impossible rela- 
tions. He says that so long as men are ig- 
norant, the Body is enough for them; it 



See ante, p. 101. 
24 369 



Esoteric Christianity 



conveys teaching, it gives instruction, and 
they do not see the self-contradictions and 
impossibilities involved in the literal state- 
ments, and therefore are not disturbed by 
them. As the mind grows, as the intellect 
develops, these contradictions and impossi- 
bilities strike the attention, and bewilder 
the student ; then he is stirred up to seek for 
a deeper meaning, and he begins to find the 
Soul of the Scriptures. That Soul is the re- 
ward of the intelligent seeker, and he es- 
capes from the bonds of the letter that kill- 
eth. 1 The Spirit of the Scriptures may only 
be seen by the spiritually enlightened man; 
only those in whom the Spirit is evolved 
can understand the spiritual meaning: "the 
things of God knoweth no man but the 
Spirit of God . . . which things also we 
speak, not in the words which man's wis- 
dom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost 
teacheth." 2 

The reason for this method of Revelation 
is not far to seek; it is the only way in 
which one teaching can be made available 



*2Cor. iii. 6. 2 1 Cor. ii. 11, 13. 

370 



Revelation 



for minds at different stages of evolution, 
and thus train not only those to whom it is 
immediately given, but also those who, later 
in time, shall have progressed beyond those 
to whom the Eevelation was first made. 
Man is progressive; the outer meaning 
given long ago to unevolved men must 
needs be very limited, and unless something 
deeper and fuller than this outer meaning 
were hidden within it, the value of the 
Scripture would perish when a few millen- 
nia had passed away. Whereas by this 
method of successive meanings it is given a 
perennial value, and evolved men may find 
in it hidden treasures, until the day when, 
possessing the whole, they no longer need 
the part. 

The world-Bibles, then, are fragments — 
fragments of Eevelation, and therefore are 
rightly described as Eevelation. 

The next deeper sense of the word de- 
scribes the mass of teaching held by the 
great Brotherhood of spiritual Teachers in 
trust for men ; this teaching is embodied in 
books, written in symbols, and in these is 
contained an account of kosmic laws, of the 
371 



Esoteric Christianity 



principles on which the kosmos is founded, 
of the methods by which it is evolved, of all 
the beings that compose it, of its past, its 
present, its future; this is The Eevelation. 
This is the priceless treasure which the 
Guardians of humanity hold in charge, and 
from which they select, from time to time, 
fragments to form the Bibles of the world. 

Thirdly, the Eevelation, highest, fullest, 
best, is the Self -unveiling of Deity in the 
kosmos, the revealing of attribute after at- 
tribute, power after power, beauty after 
beauty, in all the various forms which in 
their totality compose the universe. He 
shows His splendour in the sun, His infinity 
in the star-flecked fields of space, His 
strength in mountains, His purity in snow- 
clad peaks and translucent air, His energy 
in rolling ocean-billows, His beauty in tum- 
bling mountain - torrent, in smooth, clear 
lake, in cool, deep forest and in sunlit plain, 
His fearlessness in the hero, His patience in 
the saint, His tenderness in mother-love, 
His protecting care in father and in king, 
His wisdom in the philosopher, His know- 
ledge in the scientist, His healing power in 

372 



Revelation 



the physician, His justice in the judge, His 
wealth in the merchant, His teaching power 
in the priest, His industry in the artisan. 
He whispers to us in the breeze, He smiles 
on us in the sunshine, He chides us in dis- 
ease, He stimulates us, now by success and 
now by failure. Everywhere and in every- 
thing He gives us glimpses of Himself to 
lure us on to love Him, and He hides Him- 
self that we may learn to stand alone. To 
know Him everywhere is the true Wisdom ; 
to love Him ever} r where is the true Desire; 
to serve Him everywhere is the true Action. 
This Self-revealing of God is the highest 
Kevelation; all others are subsidiary and 
partial. 

The inspired man is the man to whom 
some of this Revelation has come by the 
direct action of the universal Spirit on the 
separated Spirit that is His offspring, who 
has felt the illuminating influence of Spirit 
on Spirit. No man knows the truth so that he 
can never lose it, no man knows the truth 
so that he can never doubt it, until the Rev- 
elation has come to him as though he stood 
alone on earth, until the Divine without has 

373 



Esoteric Christianity 



spoken to the Divine within, in the temple 
of the human heart, and the man thus 
knows by himself and not by another. 

In a lesser degree a man is inspired when 
one greater than he stimulates within him 
powers which as yet are normally inactive, 
or even takes possession of him, temporarily 
using his body as a vehicle. Such an illu- 
minated man, at the time of his inspiration, 
can speak that which is beyond his know- 
ledge, and utter truths till then unguessed. 
Truths are sometimes thus poured out 
through a human channel for the helping 
of the world, and some One greater than 
the speaker sends down his life into the 
human vehicle, and they rush forth from 
human lips ; then a great teacher speaks yet 
more greatly than he knows, the Angel of 
the Lord having touched his lips with fire. 1 
Such are the Prophets of the race, who at 
some periods have spoken with overwhelm- 
ing conviction, with clear insight, with com- 
plete understanding of the spiritual needs of 
man. Then the words live with a life im- 



1 Isaiah vi. 6, 7. 
374 



Revelation 



mortal, and the speaker is truly a messenger 
from God. The man who has thus known 
can never again quite lose the memory of 
the knowledge, and he carries within his 
heart a certainty which can never quite dis- 
appear. The light may vanish and the dark- 
ness come down upon him ; the gleam from 
heaven may fade and clouds may surround 
him ; threat, question, challenge, may as- 
sail him ; but within his heart there nestles 
the Secret of Peace — he knows, or knows 
that he has known. 

That remembrance of true inspiration, 
that reality of the hidden life, has been put 
into beautiful and true words by Frederick 
Myers, in his well-known poem, S. Paul. 
The apostle is speaking of his own experi- 
ence, and is trying to give articulate expres- 
sion to that which he remembers ; he is fig- 
ured as unable to thoroughly reproduce his 
knowledge, although he knows and his cert- 
ainty does not waver : 

So, even I, athirst for His inspiring, 
I, who have talked with Him, forget again ; 

Yes, many days with sobs aod with desiring, 
Offer to God a patience and a pain. 
375 



Esoteric Christianity 



Then through the mid complaint of my confession, 
Then through the pang and passion of my prayer, 

Leaps with a start the shock of His possession, 
Thrills me and touches, and the Lord is there. 

Lo, if some pen should write upon your rafter 

Mene and Mene in the folds of flame, 
Think ye could any memories thereafter 

Wholly retrace the couplet as it came? 

Lo, if some strange intelligible thunder 

Sang to the earth the secret of a star, 
Scarce should ye catch, for terror and for wonder, 

Shreds of the story that was pealed so far! 

Scarcely I catch the words of His revealing, 
Hardly I hear Him, dimly understand. 

Only the power that is within me pealing 
Lives on my lips, and beckons to my hand. 

Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest 
Cannot confound, nor doubt Him, nor deny ; 

Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest, 
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I. 

Rather the world shall doubt when her retrieving 
Pours in the rain and rushes from the sod ; 

Rather than he in whom the great conceiving 
Stirs in his soul to quicken into God. 

Nay, though thou then shouldst strike him from his 
glory, 

Blind and tormented, maddened and alone, 
E'en on the cross would he maintain his story, 

Yes, and in Hell would whisper, "I have known." 



Those who have in any sense realised that 

376 



Revelation 



God is around them, in them, and in every- 
thing, will be able to understand how a 
place or an object may become " sacred " by 
a slight objectivisation of this perennial uni- 
versal Presence, so that those become able 
to sense Him who do not normally feel His 
omnipresence. This is generally effected by 
some highly advanced man, in whom the 
inner Divinity is largely unfolded, and whose 
subtle bodies are therefore responsive to the 
subtler vibrations of consciousness. Through 
such a man, or by such a man, spiritual en- 
ergies may be poured forth, and these will 
unite themselves with his pure vital magnet- 
ism. He can then pour them forth on any 
object, and its ether and bodies of subtler 
matter will become attuned to his vibra- 
tions, as before explained, and further, the 
Divinity within it can more easily manifest. 
Such an object becomes "magnetised," and, 
if this be strongly done, the object will itself 
become a magnetic centre, capable in turn 
of magnetising those who approach it. Thus 
a body electrified by an electric machine will 
affect other bodies near which it may be 
placed. 

377 



Esoteric Christianity 



An object thus rendered "sacred" is a 
very useful adjunct to prayer and medita- 
tion. The subtle bodies of the worshipper 
are attuned to its high vibrations, and he 
finds himself quieted, soothed, pacified, with- 
out effort on his own part. He is thrown 
into a condition in which prayer and medi- 
tation are easy and fruitful instead of diffi- 
cult and barren, and an irksome exorcise be- 
comes insensibly delightful. If the object 
be a representation of some sacred Person — 
a Crucifix, a Madonna and Child, an Angel, 
a Saint — there is a yet further gain. The 
Being represented, if his magnetism has been 
thrown into the image by the appropriate 
Word and Sign of Power, can reinforce 
that magnetism with a very slight expendi- 
ture of spiritual energy, and may thus in- 
fluence the devotee, or even show him- 
self through the image, when otherwise he 
would not have done so. For in the spirit- 
ual world economy of forces is observed, 
and a small amount of energy will be ex- 
pended where a larger would be withheld. 

An application of these same occult laws 
may be made to explain the use of all con- 

378 



Revelation 



secrated objects — relics, amulets, &c. They 
are all magnetised objects, more or less 
powerful, or useless, according to the know- 
ledge, purity, and spirituality of the person 
who magnetises them. 

Places may similarly be made sacred, by 
the living in them of saints, whose pure 
magnetism, radiating from them, attunes 
the whole atmosphere to peace-giving vibra- 
tions. Sometimes holy men, or Beings from 
the higher worlds, will directly magnetise a 
certain place, as in the case mentioned in 
the Fourth Gospel, where an Angel came at 
a certain season and touched the water, giv- 
ing it healing qualities. 1 In such places 
even careless worldly men will sometimes 
feel the blessed influence, and will be tem- 
porarily softened and inclined toward higher 
things. The divine Life in each man is ever 
trying to subdue the form, and mould it into 
an expression of itself ; and it is easy to see 
how that Life will be aided by the form 
being thrown into vibrations sympathetic 
with those of a more highly evolved Being, 
its own efforts being reinforced by a stronger 



1 S. John v. 4. 
379 



Esoteric Christianity 



power. The outer recognition of this effect 
is a sense of quiet, calm, and peace; the 
mind loses its restlessness, the heart its 
anxiety. Any one who observes himself will 
find that some places are more conducive to 
calm, to meditation, to religious thought, 
to worship, than others. In a room, a build- 
ing, where there has been a great deal of 
worldly thought, of frivolous conversation, 
of mere rush of ordinary worldly life, it is 
far harder to quiet the mind and to concen- 
trate the thought, than in a place where 
religious thought has been carried on year 
after year, century after century ; there the 
mind becomes calm and tranquillised insen- 
sibly, and that which would have demanded 
serious effort in the first place is done with- 
out effort in the second. 

This is the rationale of places of pilgrim- 
age, of temporary retreats into seclusion; 
the man turns inward to seek the God within 
him, and is aided by the atmosphere created 
by thousands of others, who before him have 
sought the same in the same place. For in 
such a place there is not only the magneti- 
sation produced by a single saint, or by the 

380 



Revelation 



visit of some great Being of the invisible 
world; each person, who visits the spot with 
a heart full of reverence and devotion, and 
is attuned to its vibrations, reinforces those 
vibrations with his own life, and leaves the 
spot better than it was when he came to it. 
Magnetic energy slowly disperses, and a 
sacred object or place becomes gradually 
demagnetised if put aside or deserted. It 
becomes more magnetised as it is used or 
frequented. But the presence of the ignor- 
ant scoffer injures such objects and places, 
by setting up antagonistic vibrations which 
weaken those already existing there. As a 
wave of sound may be met by another which 
extinguishes it, and the result is silence, so 
do the vibrations of the scoffing thought 
weaken or extinguish the vibrations of the 
reverent and loving one. The effect pro- 
duced will, of course, vary with the relative 
strengths of the vibrations, but the mis- 
chievous one cannot be without result, for 
the laws of vibration are the same in the 
higher worlds as in the physical, and thought 
vibrations are the expression of real ener- 
gies. 

381 



Esoteric Christianity 



The reason and the effect of the consecra- 
tion of churches, chapels, cemeteries, will 
now be apparent. The act of consecration 
is not the mere public setting aside of a 
place for a particular purpose ; it is the mag- 
netisation of the place for the benefit of all 
those who frequent it. For the visible and 
the invisible worlds are inter-related, inter- 
woven, each with each, and those can best 
serve the visible by whom the energies of 
the invisible can be wielded. 



382 



AFTERWORD 



We have reached the end of a small book 
on a great subject, and have only lifted a 
corner of the Veil that hides the Virgin of 
Eternal Truth from the careless eyes of men. 
The hem of her garment only has been seen, 
heavy with gold, richly dight with pearls. 
Yet even this, as it waves slowly, breathes 
out celestial fragrances — the sandal and 
rose-attar of fairer worlds than ours. What 
should be the unimaginable glory, if the 
Veil were lifted, and we saw the splendour of 
the Face of the divine Mother, and in Her 
arms the Child who is the very Truth? Be- 
fore that Child the Seraphim ever veil their 
faces; who then of mortal birth may look 
on Him and live? 

Yet since in man abides His very Self, 
who shall forbid him to pass within the Veil, 
and to see with "open face the glory of the 

Lord "? From the Cave to highest Heaven; 

383 



Esoteric Christianity 



such was the pathway of the Word made 
Flesh, and known as the Way of the Cross. 
Those who share the manhood share also 
the Divinity, and may tread where He has 
trodden. "What Thou art, That am L" 



Peace to all Beings. 



384 



INDEX 



XXL/vo VJ vflo ^XJJUovuvo ltJltJlitJU. LU . 


PAGE 
970 


IX jA.tllipi&, JL HUillclo .... 


11 R 
. HO 


XA.1LC1 vv UlLl ...... 


. . . ooo 


Allegory ..... 


DO 


xxllcgUllco, v^lu. X coldlLltJlil ... 


1 on 


xxll-YVlue V^OIlbLlOUSlieSS . . 


970 rt+ as>rt 

4>tv ex sea. 


j^lllliiUili lib OdUL/d)b .... 


9Q 

AO 


xxJlllllcll OjlllUUlo Ul ZjUUIcLU ... 




A Y"l CI ol YYl QTln Tcfl/lOTVl Vvf 1 ATI 

xxDSclIIl dilU JAcUcllip tlOll 




x\.nswers io riciyei .... 


97 A 


i\.nSWerS LO oUUjeCllVt; Jridjcr, 


. -OOO 


Apollonius of Tyana .... 


Q1 

ol 


Apostolic Fathers .... 


AO 


A "nnpara tippq of Tiivinp T^Pincrci 


92 


Aquinas, Thomas .... 


. 110 


Avians of the Fourth Century, quoted 


. 101 


Aristotle, Effect on Mediaeval Christianity 


. Ill 


Ascension, The ..... 


. 230, 249 


Ascension and Solar Myth . 


. 230 


Ascension of the Christ . 


. 248 


Asiatic Researches, quoted . 


. 256 


Aspects of the One .... 


. 259 


Athanasius, Story of . 


. 350 


Athanasian Creed, quoted . 


. 261, 364 


Atlantis, Continent of . 


. 18 


At-one-ment 


. 208 


Atonement as one of Lesser Mysteries 


. 199 


" Early Church on the 


. 194 



25 385 



Index 



PAGE 

Atonement, Calvinistic View of 196 

" Edwards on the . . . . .195 

Flavelonthe 195 

" Luther's Views on the .... 195 
" Dr. McLeod Campbell on the . . . 197 
" F. D. Maurice on the .... 198 
u Vicarious and Substitutionary . . .194 
" Views of Dwight, Jeune, Jenkyn, Liddon, 
" Owen, Stroud, and Thomson . 196, 197 

" Truth underlying the Doctrine of . .198 
" Pamphlet on, quoted . . • . . 196 
" Nineteenth Century quoted on . . 204 

Augoeides ......... 27 

Barnabas ......... 70 

Baptism, A Mantra in ...... 347 

A Minor Form of ..... 346 

Belief in Death-bed 349 

Infant .... e 350 

In the Early Church 350 

" In Other Religions 346 

" of Initiate ....... 53 

of Holy Ghost and Fire . . . .187 

of Jesus ....... 132 

of the Christ ...... 185 

" Tertullianon ...... 346 

Beatific Vision, The . . . . . . 94, 293 

Bernard of Clairvaux . . . . . . .110 

Bel-fires ......... 163 

Bhagamd Oitd, referred to . . 50, 200, 268, 304, 316 

Bible Account of Creation 178 

Birth, Second . 246 

Blavatsky, H. P., referred to 126 

Blood of Christ symbolised in Eucharist . . . 355 
Bohme, Jacob ........ 114 

386 



Index 



PAGE 

Body, Causal 238, 246 

" Desire, Changes in . . . . . . 248 

" Meaning of a 233 

" Mental 235 

" Building of . . . . .244 

" Natural or Physical 234 

" Natural, of St. Paul . . . . .236 

" of Bliss . .239 

of Desire 235 

" Physical, Changes in ..... 242 

" Resurrection 239 

Body, Spiritual . 237 

Bona ventura, Saint 110 

Book of Job, quoted 266, 330 

" of the Dead, referred to . . . . .337 

" of Numbers, quoted 268 

" of Wisdom, quoted 264 

Bread, General Symbol in Sacraments . . . 355 
Brihaddranyakopaiiisliat, quoted . . .49, 200 

Brotherhood of Great Teachers 9 

Bruno, Giordano, referred to . 5, 111, 114, 223, 320 

Buddha, Birth Story of 162 

Buddhist Trinity 256 

Calvinistic Doctrine 196 

Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa 114 

Cathari, The, referred to . . . . . .112 

Cave of Initiation 185 

Celsus — Controversy with Origen . . . .86 

Chhdndogyopanishat, quoted 251 

Chrestos and Christos . . . . . . 173 

Christ as Hierophant of Mysteries .... 230 

" Baptism of 185 

" Crucifixion of ...... 181 

" Disciples of 222 

387 



Index 



PAGE 

Christ in the Spiritual Body 136 

" Life of the 215 

" of the Mysteries 190 

"The 131, 133 

" the Crucified 181 

" the Historical 119, 139 

" theKosmic . . . 177 

the Mystic . . 169 

the Mythic 144 

" Sufferings of the 221 

Christian Creed, referred to .... 179, 180 
" quoted .... 205, 206, 228 
Christian Disciples— their work . . . . . 222 

Christian Becords, quoted 345 

Christian Symbols, &c, not unique . . . .146 

Christianity has the Gnosis 36 

Christmas Day 157, 159, 160 

Christmas Festival, rightly regarded . . .163 
Clarke's Anti-Mcene Library, quoted . viii, 21, 58, 
70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 79 et seq., 86, 88, 90 et seq., 
103, 149, 150, 264 
Classes of Prayer . . . . . .281 

Clement of Alexandria, quoted . . . viii, 21 

" " referred to . . . .73 

« " on the Gnosis . . 82, 83 

" " on Scripture Allegories . 82 

" " on Symbols . . . .79 

" " and Catechetical School . 72 

" " a Pupil of Panteenus . . 72 

Colossians, Epistles to, referred to . 58, 64, 80, 176 
Comparative Mythologists ..... 7 

" " Theory of ... 7 

" Religionists 7, 8 

Mythology . . ' . . . .146 

Consecrated Objects 379 

388 



Index 



PAGE 

Consecration of Churches, Cemeteries, &c. . . 382 

Constant, Alphonse Louis 116 

Conversion, Phenomenon of . . . 311 et seq. 
Corinthians, Epistles to, quoted . . x, 6, 32, 55, 63, 

66, 123, 174, 176, 231, 238, 239, 240, 249, 251, 

268, 353, 370 

Creed, taught after Baptism in Early Church . . 349 

Cruden's Concordance, quoted 33 

Cur Deus Homo of Anselm . . . . .194 

Dangers to Christianity 124 

Dark Powers in Nature 185, 186 

Dean Milman, quoted .... 253 et seq. 

Death of Solar Heroes 165 

Be Principiis of Origen 100, 101 

Deuteronomy, quoted 95, 251 

Diegesis of R. Taylor, quoted 347 

Die Deutsche Theologie 113 

Dionysius the Areopagite . . . ... , 108 

Disappearance of the Mysteries 182 

Disciples, The 133 

Work of the 222 

" Writings of the 139 

Divine Beings, Appearance in Mysteries . . .92 

" Divine Grace," what it is 223 

Ideation . . . . . . . .356 

" Illumination ....... 374 

" Incarnations . . , . . . 271, 272 
Duality of Manifested Existence .... 234 

of Second Person of Trinity . . . .263 

Easter Festival 158 

Eckhart, Teachings of . 112 

Edwards on the Atonement 195 

Egypt and the Mysteries . . . . . 129 

389 



Index 



PAGE 

Elizabeth, Saint ........ 112 

Encyclopedia Britannica, referred to . . 22, 23, 115 
" " quoted . . 110 et seq. 

Ephesians, Epistle to, quoted . . 57, 64, 67, 363 

Epistle of James, quoted 274 

" of Peter, quoted . . 64, 120, 193, 351, 368 
Esoteric Christianity, Popular Denial of . . .2 
" Teaching in Early Church .... 2 

Essentials of Religion 4 

Eucharist, Bread and "Wine of .... 354 
" Change of Substance in ... 358 
" connected with Law of Sacrifice . . 354 

" Meaning and Use of 354 

Sacrifice of . . . . . . .352 

" Unworthy Participants in . . . . 359 

Exodus, Book of, quoted 90 

Extasy ......... 293 

F,aith Needed for Forgiveness 310 

Fathers, The Christian, on Scriptures . . . 368 

Festivals 146 

Fish Symbol in Religions 164 

Flavel on Atonement . . . . . . .195 

Fludd, Robert . 115 

Forgiveness of Sins ....... 299 

" in Lesser Mysteries ..... 321 

" in most Religions 301 

" ultimately refers to Post-Mortem Penalties 305 

Fourth Manifestation Feminine 259 

Person . 261 

Francois de Sales, Saint 114 

Free-thinking in Christianity ..... 122 

Friends of God in the Oberland 112 

Friends, Society of .116 

Future of Christianity 40 

390 



Index 



PAGE 

Galatians, Epistle to, quoted . . 63, 64, 65, 66, 123 
Genesis, quoted ... 18, 178, 266, 269, 277, 355 

Germain, Comte de S. 116 

Gestures in Sacraments 336 

Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of B. Empire 11 . . . 161 

Giles, Rev. Dr., quoted 344 

Gnosis, The . viii, 9, 107 

" in Christianity . . . . .36 
Gnostic, The, of S. Clement . . . . 82 et seq. 
" Gnostics and their Remains " . . . .161 

Gods in the Mysteries 24 

Grades of Hierarchies 328 

Grand Lodge of Central Asia . . . .31 

Greek Cross, The 265 

Guyon, Mme. de . 115 

Haug, Dr., Essay on Par sis, cited .... 201 
Hebrews, Epistle to, quoted . . 53, 67, 80, 90, 174, 
175, 204, 215, 221, 222, 245, 268, 272, 277 

Hebrew Trinity 252 

Hell-fire Dogma, The 48 

Heroic Enthusiast, The, quoted 321 

Hidden God, The 206 

" Meanings in Jewish and Christian Script- 
ures 99 

" Side in Christianity 36 

" Teaching in all Religions . . . .20 

Hierarchies of Divine Beings 328 

" of Superhuman Beings . . . .23 

Hindu Trinity, The 255 

History versus Myth .152 

Holy Spirit as Creator 266 

Holy Water 341, 346, 348 

Human Evolution repeats Kosmic Process . . . 269 
Huxley, T. H., quoted 280 

391 



Index 



PAGE 

Hyde, Dr., quoted 344 

Hymn to Demeter ....... 21 

Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, quoted . . 22, 23, 24, 

25, 27, 28, 29, 294 et seq. 
Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, referred to . 28 

Ignatius 70 

Incarnation of Logos 178 

Initiation and Rebirth . . . . . 51, 53 
Cave of 185 

" Ceremonies of ... 246 et seq. 

" Conditions of 172 

Mount of 90 

Inspiration, True 375 

Intelligences in Invisible Worlds .... 277 

Inviolability of Law 302 

Invisible Helpers 277 

Invisible Worlds interpenetrate the Visible . . 277 
Irenseus, Against Heresies, referred to ... 104 

Isaiah, quoted 209, 293, 363, 374 

Isomeric Compounds ....... 358 

Jeremiah, Book of, quoted 260, 354 

Jesus at Mount Serbal 129 

" Baptism of .... e .. 132 

" Date and Place of Birth 128 

" His Work in Christendom 141 

" in Egypt 129 

" Inner Instructions of . . . . . . 136 

" Master of the West 146 

" Sacrifice of 132 

" the Divine Teacher 182 

" the Healer and Teacher 126 

" training in Essene Community .... 129 

" the Master 141 

392 



Index 



PAGE 

John of the Cross, Saint 114 

John, Saint, Gospel of, quoted . . x, 45, 52, 53, 56, 

102, 131, 132, 133, 135, 176, 179, 214, 239, 245, 

248, 260, 268, 270, 271, 290, 379 

Judges, Book of, quoted . 95 

Juliana, Mother 116 

Justin Martyr 147 

" " quoted .... 148 et seq. 

Kabbala, Five Books of, referred to . . . .34 

Karma 286, 307 

Kathopanishat, quoted 32, 49 

Key to Theosophy, quoted 292 

Kingdom of Heaven — real meaning . . . .52 

Kings, Book of, quoted 33, 351 

Kosmic Christ, The 177 

" Process of becoming 266 

" Sacrifice 182 

Lang, Andrew, referred to ... 11, 12 

Language of Symbols 152 

Latin Cross, Origin of 205 

" Use of, in Roman Church 335 

Law of Sacrifice 200 

" in Hinduism 200 

" " in Nature of Logos . . . .202 

" " in Zoroastrianism .... 201 

" " or Manifestation . . . .201 

Law, William . . . . . . . 115 

Left-hand Path . . . . . . . .17 

Lent . . 166 

Levi, Eliphas . . . . . . . 116 

Leviticus, quoted 355 

Light on the Path, quoted 219 

"Little Child " 64 

393 



Index 



PAGE 

Logos, Birth of the 204 

" and Sacrifice 203 

" Life of, in every form . . . . 206 

" Meaning of the Term 171 

" of Plato 181 

" Perpetual Sacrifice of . . . . 208 

Loss of Mystic Teaching in Christianity . . .37 

Luke, Saint, Gospel of, quoted . . .45, 48, 174, 
175, 262, 287, 299, 310 

Luther on the Atonement 195 

Madonnas 159 

Magnetic Cures, Secret of 339 

" Change in Sacramental Substance . . 340 

" Energies in Ether 339 

Magnetisation of Substances 339 

Making of Religion, The, referred to . . . .11 

Man as Microcosm . 269 

" and Woman Complementary .... 362 

" develops Second Aspect 270 

Man's Manifold Nature 233 

"Mantras" 333 

" essential in Sacraments .... 336 

" in rite of Baptism 348 

" in Samskrit 334 

" spoilt by translation 335 

Mark, Saint, Gospel of, quoted . . . vii, 45, 47 

Martin, Saint 115 

Marriage, Deeper meaning of 362 

" in Lesser Mysteries 365 

Mystery of 363 

Sacrament of ' . . . . 361 

" type of union between God and Man . . 363 

Mary, the World Mother 204 

Master, the Jesus, 141 

394 



Index 



PAGE 

Matthew, Saint, Gospel of, quoted . . . viii, 45, 
46, 49, 51, 53, 54, 90, 132, 175, 176, 185, 208, 
214, 239, 269, 272, 279, 303, 317 

Maurice, cited 252 

Mead, G. E. S., quoted . . 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 113 
Mediator, Nature of . . ' . . . . .272 

Meditation—What it is 291 

Growth by 297 

Men at different levels .3 

Miguel de Molinos . 115 

Ministry of Angels, The 285, 287 

Miracles 144 

Mithras, Birth of 159 

Modern Spirit antagonistic to Prayer .... 274 

More, Henry 115 

Mother Juliana of Norwich 116 

Mount Serbal 129 

Mount of Initiation 90, 187 

Muller, George, Case of ... 282 et seq. 

Mundakopanishat, quoted . . . . .33, 201 

Music in Worship 333, 335 

Myers (F.), his St. Paul 375 

Mystery Gods 25 

" of Christ .57 

Mysteries, Christian, Symbolism of ... 246 

Mysteries and Yoga 31 

" Christ as Hierophant of . . . . 230 

" Disappearance of the 182 

" Eliphas Levi on the . . . . . 116 

" established by Christ 140 

Greater, The ... ix, 1, 22, 27, 63 

" in the Gospels 45 

" in Egypt . . . . . . .129 

" in relation to Myth 156 

" Lesser ix, 1, 22 

395 



Index 



PAGE 

Mysteries, Lesser and Prayer 278 

as to Bodies . . . .234 
Teaching of . . . . . 249 
" Names in Christianity . . . .47 

of Bacchus 21, 27 

" of Chaldsea, Egypt, Eleusis, Mithras, Or- 
pheus, Samothrace, Scythia . . .21 

of God . . . 56 

of Jesus . . . . . . . 1, 42, 93 

of the Early Church . . . 68 et seq. 
" of Magic, quoted . . . . . . 156 

" praised by Learned Greeks . . .21 
Pseudo, and Sun-God Story . . .166 
" source of Mystic Learning . . . .106 

The 170, 177 

" taught Post-mortem Existence . . .21 
The True . . . . . . .177 

The Christ of the . . . . .183 

Theory of the . 22 

" withdrawn 106 

Mystic Christ, The ....... 169 

" Twofold ...... 177 

" Vesture, The 137 

Mythic Christ, The 144 

Myth, Meaning of 151, 152 

" Solar 154 

Mythology Comparative 146 

Natural and Spiritual Bodies ..... 231 

Body— of St. Paul 236 

Natural Body, The 234 et seq. 

Need for Graded Religion . . . . . .14 

Neoplatonists 29, 111 

Newman, Cardinal, quoted . . . 102 et seq. 
" Recognizes a Secret Tradition . . . 104 

396 



Index 



PAGE 

New Testament Proofs of Esotericisrn . 42 et seq. 

Nicene Creed 180 

Nicolas of Basel 112 

Noachian Deluge ....... 19 

Nous Demiurges of Plato 253 

Object of all Religions 3 

Occult Experts 126 

u Knowledge, Danger of 16 

" Records 18 

" " and the Gospels . . . . 128 

" side of Nature 277 

" use of Sounds . . . . • . . 331 

Old Testament Allegories 120 

One Existence, The 251 

One, The, Three aspects of . . . . . 259 

" " Manifest 259 

Origen Against Celsus 86 et seq. , 94 

" on the Need of Wisdom . . . . .99 

" Mysteries . 88 

" Scriptures 369 

" Tower of Babel . . . . . 96 

" referred to 44, 72 

" Shining Light of Learning . . . .86 
Orpheus, Mead's, quoted ... 28, 29, 30, 113 
Owen on Atonement . . . . . .196 

Pantamus 72, 73 

Paracelsus 114 

Paradise . . . . . . . . 241 

Path of Discipleship 173 

Paul, Saint, quoted . . . — . Uetseq., 123, 183 

" an Initiate 61 

" " and Mysteries .56 

" and Timothy ... 58, 59, 68 

397 



Index 



PAGE 

Paul, Saint, on Allegory 66 

Paul, Saint, by F. Myers 375 

Peter, Saint, quoted 193 

Philippians, Epistle to, quoted 61 

Physical Ailments final expression of Karma . . 308 

Physical Body, Changes in . 242 

" Material in Sacraments .... 338 

Pilgrimages, Rationale of * 380 

Pistis Sophia, quoted .... 46, 137, 138, 300 
etseq., 317 et seq., 340 

" " referred to 136 

Plato's Cave 152 

Plato initiated in Egypt .21 

Platonists of Cambridge . . . . .115 

Plotinus, Dying Words of 31 

referred to .23 

Mead's, quoted 26, 31 

Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna 70 

Popular Christianity, Mistake of . . . . vii 
" Denial of Esoteric Christianity ... 1 

Porphyry, quoted 27, 54 

Prayer 274 

" Answers to 274 

" as Will ..... . . .283 

" Class B — general principle .... 290 

" Failure of 285 

" for Spiritual Enlightment . . . .289 
" for the Student of Lesser Mysteries . . 294 

" Highest form of 291 

" Puzzling Facts as to 275 

Prayers classified 276 

Probationary Path, The 246 

" Proclaim upon the houses " — Mystical meaning . 78 
Proclus, Teaching of . . - . 26, 29, 50 
Psalms, quoted 5, 297 

398 



Index 



PAGE 

Pseudo-Mysteries and Sun-God Drama . . . 166 

Pupils of the Apostles 69 

Purgatory 241 

Purification 241 

Pythagoras, referred to 28 

in India 31 

Pythagorean School, Discipline of 29, 30 

Qualifications of Disciple 174 

Quietists, The 115 

Regions of the Invisible Worlds 238 

Ee -incarnation 238 

Religion, Need for graded 14 

" of Ancient Persians, quoted . . . 344 

Religions, Common origin of 7 

" Custodians of Sacred Books . . . 366 

" Essentials of 4 

fitted for Stages of Growth ... 13 

" Object of all 3 

Source of all 7 

Religious Founders 10 

" Scriptures 10 

Teachers 9 

Resurrection and Solar Myth .... 230, 247 

Body 239 

of the Christ 247 

" of the Dead 61 

« The— Part of Lesser Mysteries . . 230 

Revelation 366 

" Fragments of, in Sacred Books . . 367 

in Cypher 367 

of Deity in Kosmos . . . .372 
Revelations, Book of, quoted . . . 50, 63, 65, 
248, 261, 290, 320, 329 

399 



Index 



PAGE 

Revolt against Dogma ...... 38 

Roman Empire dying . . . . . .106 

Romans, Epistle to, quoted 81, 360 

Rosenkreutz, Christian 115 

Ruling Angel of Jews . . . . . 95, 96 

Ruysbroeek ......... 113 

Sacrament, a kind of crucible 324 

" a Pictorial Allegory . . . .322 

" Change in substance at ... 340 
" Link between Visible and Invisible . 324, 325 
of Baptism . . . ... 344 

of Eucharist ...... 344 

" of Marriage ..... 344, 361 

of Penance 338 

Sacraments 322 

" Angels connected with . . . • . 340 
" defined in Church Catechism . . . 326 

" Gestures used in 336 

" in all Religions . . . . .322 
" Lost at Reformation .... 325 

" Mantras in 336 

of Christian Church 325 

" Peculiar Characteristics of 322 
Seven, of Christianity . . . 325, 343 
Signs, Seals, or Sigils in . . . .336 
"Substance " and "Accidents" of . . 358 
Twofold Nature of . . . 322 et seq. 
" Two, in Protestant Communities . 326, 343 

Sacred Places and Objects 377 

Sacred Quaternery, The 259 

Sacrifice as Joy ...... 208 et seq. 

Law of .200 

Four Stages in 211 

" Lessons in 211 et seq. 

400 



Index 



PAGE 

Sacrifice of Jesus 132 

Samuel, Book of, quoted . . . . . .33 

Savage Deities 11 

Savages as Descendants of Civilisation . . .12 
Saviour, The True . . . . 218 et seq. 

Sayings of Jesus 53, 54, 299 

Scientific Analysis of Vehicles 236 

Search for God, The 5 

Secret Teachings of Jesus 89 

" Tradition recognised by Newman . . . 102 
Second Birth .... . . 184, 246 

Sepher Yetzirah, quoted 34 

Sharpe's Egyptian Mythology, quoted . . . . 257 

Shvetdshvataropanishat, quoted 32 

" Sign of Power " 337 

Society of Friends 116 

Solar Gods 158 

" Myth, Root of 177 

Sopater, quoted 21 

Sophia— The Wisdom 137 

Soul— Dual 232 

Sound and Form in the Invisible Worlds . . . 331 

Sound, Occult use of 332 

Source of Religions 7 

Spirit and Matter 364 

Spirit threefold 231 

" manifested as triple Self ..... 328 
Spiritual Body, Divisions of 237 et seq. 

" Star of Initiation " 185 

" Strait Gate " term of Initiation . . 49, 50, 173, 175 
Stromata, or Miscellanies of S. Clement, quoted . . 58, 
72 et seq. 

Sufferings of the Christ 220 

Superintending Spirits 96 

Sun God Legend . . . . . . . . 156 

26 401 



Index 



PAGE 

Sun God Symbol of Logos . . . . . .170 

" Heroes 163 

" Myths, recurring ....... 167 

" of Righteousness ....... 248 

" Symbol of the Logos ...... 153 

" Symbols 154 

Survival of Christianity? ...... 40 

Symbol of Jesus 164 

of Trinity ....... 264 

Symbols — animal, in Zodiac 164 

" Language of 152 

Symbols of Logoi 264 et seq. 

Tatian and Theodotus, referred to . . < . 72 

Tauler, John 113 

Taylor, Robert, quoted ...... 347 

Teachings common to all Religions .... 145 

" in the hands of Spiritual Brotherhood . 371 

Teresa, Saint 115 

Tertullian on Baptism 150 

The Christ 133 

The Hidden Side of Religions 1 

" of Christianity . 36 

The Disciples . 135 

The " Simple Gospel " . . . . . . .38 

The title of Lord ........ 95 

The Testimony of the Scriptures . . . .36 

The Tower of Babel 96 

The Thyrsus 74 

The True Exstasis ....... 107 

The Trinity 251 

" " among the Hebrews .... 252 

Hindu 255 

in Buddhism 256 

" " in Chaldaea 257 

402 



Index 



PAGE 

The Trinity in China 257 

in Extinct Religions . . . . 256 

" " in Egypt 256 

in Man 176, 232 

" " in Manifestation 252 

" " in Zoroastrianism 255 

The Word of Wisdom, of Knowledge . . .101 

Theological Hell 305 

Theosophical Review, quoted 227 

Thessalonians, Epistle to, quoted .... 232 

Three Worlds, The 240 

Timothy, Epistle to, quoted . . 59, 60, 61, 65, 133, 228 
Tradition of Post-mortem Teaching of Jesus . . 46 
Transubstantiation— Truth Underlying . . . 357 

Triangle as a Symbol of Trinity 265 

Trinity, A Second 231 

of Spirit 232 

Trinity in Christian agrees with other Faiths . . 253 

Triple Aspect of Matter 261, 282 

Triplicity in Nature 258 

True Theosophy defined x 

Two Schools of Christian Interpretation . . . 121 
Two-fold Division of Man Insufficient . . . 231 

Vaivasvata Manu 19 

Valentinus 137 

Vaughan, Thomas . . . . . . .115 

Vehicles of Consciousness, Need for Different . . 237 

Vibrations . 332 

Vibratory Effects of Mass 335 

Virgin Matter 263 

" " and Third Person of Trinity, . . 263 
" " and Second Person of Trinity, . . 263 

" Mother 262 

Virgin's Womb, Meaning of 179 

403 



Index 



PAGE 

Virgo, Zodiacal Sign of 157, 159 

Virtues in the Mysteries . . . . . .27 

Voice of the Silence, quoted ...... 248 

Voice Figures — Mrs. Watts Hughes, referred to . . 331 

Williamson's Great Law, quoted . 160, 162 et seq., 

165, 166, 201, 253, 257, 345, 355 
Will as Prayer . . . . . . . .283 

Word of Power 333 

Work of the Holy Spirit 178, 266 

" Second Person .... 178, 267 
First Person . . . . .268 

Working of Logos in Matter 181 

Workers in Kosmos 281 

the Invisible Worlds .... 151, 278 
World Bibles, fragments of Revelation . . . 371 

World Soul, The 23 

World Symbols 264 

Writings of the Disciples 139 

Zechariah, quoted . • 266 

Zodiac, The 195 



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